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Dear Princess:<br><br>
You have evaded my question. If you reject that Enlightenment as
much as the two Dougs do, then you cannot claim to be doing any reasoning
or place any value on it. And if revelation always trumps reason,
as many conservative Christians believe, then that leaves reason in a
very shaky position.<br><br>
But what I've found is that the two Dougs will use and even teach
reasoning when it suits their purposes, but in other contexts give the
Enlightenment and all the good that it gave civilization the
boot.<br><br>
With regard to how much Enlightenment thought I accept, however, you need
to read two of my articles: "Synthetic Reason and Aesthetic
Order" at
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/srao.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/srao.htm</a>
and "Premodernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism" at <a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/490/premod.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/490/premod.htm</a>. <br><br>
Rationally Yours,<br><br>
Nick Gier<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Dear Mr. Gier,<br><br>
I'm not well enough informed to be able to either agree or disagree beyond noting that in general I tend to agree there seems to be a strong influence of Enlightenment categories in your thinking.<br><br>
-- Princess Sushitushi</blockquote><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm</a><br>
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm</a><br><br>
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