Klarinet Archive - Posting 000241.txt from 1998/07

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Cultural Relativism (was Mozart and the V word)
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 12:16:50 -0400

What absolute, complete, unmitigated foolishness. This my friends shows how
when you detach theory from reason you risk the tendency to take a perfectly
good premise (much of knowledge is the interpretation of facts that cannot
be known with EXACT precision) and debase it to absurdity. I'm just thankful
you are not my physician! This type of reasoning is why CR in its extreme
form worries me. It can actually be dangerous!

PS: Never eat ground meat that's rare - whatever your view of reality is.

SJG
-----Original Message-----
From: Sherry Katz [mailto:slkatz@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] Cultural Relativism (was Mozart and the V word)

I think you've sort of hit it but not exactly.

The reason that a "fact" is not a "fact" is more than just the question of
subjective vs. objective. Just what is "objective." If you say meat is
contaminated - that is really a generalization - that the meat is invaded by
a bacteria. But is that really contamination - not all bacteria is bad and
all meat has bacteria. And what is the bacteria. Calling something a
bacteria is also a generalization and subjective observation, as is calling
something "meat". There is really no level that is finite enough that you
can definitively say that it is a "fact"......

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional commands, e-mail: klarinet-help@-----.org
For other problems, e-mail: klarinet-owner@-----.org