Is an aptitute for logic necessary to be a moral person?

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by Reconstructo

Well, Data, it's like this. Irrational means not endowed with reason. But I felt that you would dislike the word "irrational" anyway, and question its appropriateness. So I looked it up, confirmed what I thought, and used it. Your motive for questioning the word was itself irrational. So I guess I should not call you Data.

Don't be offended at the Star Trek reference. I've grown accustomed to your constant disagreement. It's almost like hearing the ocean at night.

You think that oysters are irrational? They are not endowed with reason. And neither is my couch.

[Reconstructo]

I suppose they are irrational then. At least according to the dictionary. But the dictionary is not some divine authority. It's a guess at consensus. It's these abstract words and their all-too-various application that demonstrate real-world superiority of rhetoric to logic. The sophist has the advantage of knowing he's full of s***.

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by Reconstructo

I suppose they are irrational then. At least according to the dictionary. But the dictionary is not some divine authority. It's a guess at consensus. It's these abstract words and their all-too-various application that demonstrate real-world superiority of rhetoric to logic. The sophist has the advantage of knowing he's full of s***.

Oysters and my couch are not irrational. And the dictionary does not say they are. The dictionary is not a guess at consensus. A good dictionary is the result of collating and distilling all kinds of uses of the the word in question taken from many such uses. It is hardly a guess. I don't understand the rest of what you wrote.

[Emil]

Originally Posted by kennethamy

Hume said that "reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions". What he meant is that after reason has told us which choices there are, what the consequences of each choice are likely to be, and what means we have to take, after that, we still have to make the choice, and that choice is not one of reason, but one of passion. What choice we make after reason has done it work, is not one of reason. Not that it is irrational, as you say, because choice is neither rational nor irrational. It is non-rational.

What he said. .-.-.-.

[Reconstructo]

I posted the definition for you.

I know you don't understand me. It amuses me, finally. It's not like I cooked up this brew myself. Rorty, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Spengler, Bacon, Hobbes.
Those are my influences. What are yours, if you are willing to say?

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by Emil

What he said. .-.-.-.

What who said about what?

---------- Post added 12-07-2009 at 03:41 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Reconstructo

I posted the definition for you.

I know you don't understand me. It amuses me, finally. It's not like I cooked up this brew myself. Rorty, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Spengler, Bacon, Hobbes.
Those are my influences. What are yours, if you are willing to say?

Sorry. You have lost me. The dictionary definition neither says, nor implies, what you claim.

[Reconstructo]

Who are your favorite philosophers?

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by Reconstructo

Who are your favorite philosophers?

Socrates, Hume, Russell, Quine, Descartes, Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, G.E. Moore, Charles S. Pierce. In fact, any philosopher who argues for what he asserts. Why?

[Emil]

Originally Posted by kennethamy

What who said about what?.

It is a common expression that means that I agree with what you said.

[Reconstructo]

We are what we eat. You seem to come more from the rationalist, logical side. I like the metaphorical hermeneutics side. But I started with Socrates. And yet before that I found a textbook of formal logic on sale that totally engrossed me. Went through it on my own as a teen. But Freud & Jung were as significant as any philosopher. Psychology is inseparable from philosophy. It's all of a piece. Psychology, "literature" and philosophy are all rich with metaphor. It's just that philosophy is where the concepts are stacked the highest. Words about words about words.