”But the new rebel is a Sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything.It’s all relative.
He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it.”
…
“In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men.”
Thanks and hat tip to Mariano!
Unless scepticism has changed massively since 1908 that's... not really what a sceptic is. Or else the author is deliberately misrepresenting scepticism to try and prove a point.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you tell us what you think skepticism is, then?
ReplyDeleteFor one, loyalty is independent of whether something can be trusted "entirely".
ReplyDeleteAlso, skepticism isn't some all-encompassing description of how a person approaches life; only a person whose worldview is eroded by skepticism would characterize them like that. The vast majority of skeptics lead normal lives without encountering epistemic roadblocks at every turn.
Well for one thing, a sceptic doesn't doubt everything. At that stage the whole idea starts to fall apart; if you're sceptical of everything you have to be sceptical of your own scepticism and so on. Things go downhill from there.
ReplyDeleteHe seems to be lumping scepticism in with nihilism or perhaps some extreme version of postmodernism, when really all it is a means of battling credulity. A sceptic doesn't doubt or question absolutely everything, instead they just request evidence and proof for things that they find unlikely.
We're all sceptics to a certain extent, really. You yourself are a sceptic, for example; you are sceptical of atheism.
Note that he capitalized the word, "Skepticism". He is referring to a group who refer to themselves as Skeptics, and who have based their worldview upon Materialist and scientistic rejection of all phenomena which cannot be materially empirically demonstrated. However, they are specifically not skeptical of their own materialism nor of any science, especially science which supports Leftist causes.
ReplyDeleteSkepticism, the philosophical tactic, is a unilateral attack which ignores the unprovable axioms of rational thought, and especially the internally contradictory claims of Philosophical Materialism, upon which it is based.
He is not talking about the normal human skepticism of being approached by unsupported claims which results in seeking confirmation and releasing the skepticism in the face of confirmation. Philosophical Skeptics do not release their skepticism even upon being shown the non-coherence of their Materialism. So Skepticism is an ideology, and it has organizations, periodicals and heros.
Atheo-materialists reject formal and final causes.
ReplyDelete" Those who devote themselves to the purpose of proving that there is no purpose constitute an interesting subject for study."
- Alfred North Whitehead