Theos-Talk Archives (December 1999 Message tl00188)

In a message dated 12/15/99 3:01:20 AM Central Standard Time,
kymsmith@micron.net writes:

> >Now main point: I think general statements of humans being better or worse
>  are
>  >nonsense.
>
>  Well, then you may have just chucked the discipline of philosophy right out
>  the door.  Most of philosophy centers around this question.  Philosophy
>  constantly compares "good" and "bad," or "better" or "worse" in almost
>  every area.

What a leap in logic! I did not condemn general statements, per se.  I did
not condemn general eithical evaluations (that deal not with facts but norms,
not what actually happened but what should be done).  I only condemned
general historical statements about human progress (despite historical
appearances, evidence, and otherwise, contrary to fact).  It is more
statement of political ideologue "history = human progress" than truthful
person that thinks.  I've seen too many political officers in my life not to
detect stuff of same ilk.  I bet when and if you took formal logic, you had
problems with the scope of a quantifier in predicate calculus since you seem
unable to distinguish between a statement about a kind of general statement
from general statements period.  In any case, it is always some limited power
interest that preaches "progress" (i.e. things are increasingly going their
way to the exploitation of others suffering from that way).

G.V.A