Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Reason and Rationality

  • Is it Ever Legitimate to Question Motives?

    Absolutely. Suppose someone 'argues' that a photo ID requirement disenfranchises blacks because blacks don't have photo ID. That is a transparently worthless argument, based as it is on a plainly false premise. Once an argument has been refuted it is perfectly legitimate to inquire into the motives of the one giving it. People who give…

  • Logical Barbarity

    One encounters it in leftists for whom what is not a mere opinion is a 'checkable fact' — hence 'fact-checking.'  These chucklewits lack the category of the considered opinion. Considered opinions lie between mere opinions and known facts.

  • Reason’s Ultimate Purpose

    Karlfried Graf Durckheim, Absolute Living, p 127: ". . . reason's ultimate purpose is to clear the way for something that transcends it . . . ."

  • True For and True

    There are expressions that should be avoided by those who aim to think clearly and to promote clear thinking in others. Expressions of the form, ‘true for X’ are prime examples. In a logically sanitized world, the following would be verboten: ‘true for me,’ ‘true for you,’ ‘true for Jews,’ ‘true for Arabs,’ ‘true for…

  • Both Weak and Strong

    Reason is weak in the discernment of reasons, strong in the crafting of rationalizations. But the strength of rationalizing reason  derives not from reason but from passion and her subornation of reason.

  • Richter on Rationality

    Hi, Bill. I love your Maverick blog. I’m Reed Richter: a 71 yr old ex-academic, retired and living in Chapel Hill, NC. I was an undergrad philosophy major at UNC and did my PhD at UC Irvine. My early work was on decision theory. After teaching at UCI, UNC, and Duke, I moved to Europe.…

  • Sometimes the Truth is not Reasonably Believed

    If a proposition is true, does it follow that it is rational to accept it? (Of course, if a proposition is known to be true, then it is eminently rational to accept it; but that's not the question.) Hugh Hefner's death (27 September 2017) reminds me of a true story from around 1981.  This was…

  • In the Absence of Knowledge, May one Believe? Critique of Bryan Magee

    According to Bryan Magee ("What I Believe," Philosophy 77 (2002), 407- 419), nobody knows the answers to such questions as whether we survive our bodily deaths or whether God exists. Citing Xenophanes and Kant, Magee further suggests that the answers to these questions are not only unknown but impossible for us to know. Assuming that…

  • Is it Rational to be Politically Ignorant?

    A re-post from March 2016.  Was in Georgia 10 pt; now in 12 pt. Slightly emended. Stands up well. Internal hyperlink verified. …………………………. There are those who love to expose and mock the astonishing political ignorance of Americans.  According to a 2006 survey, only 42% of Americans could name the three branches of government.  But…

  • Can the Existence of God be Proven?

    A reader inquires, I was wondering whether you had any direction you could offer for rational arguments for God's existence? If you are looking for arguments that are not merely rational, but rationally compelling, I don't believe that there are any.  I also believe that there aren't any such arguments for the nonexistence of God. …

  • The Irrationality of Playing the Lottery

    I have posted several times over the years on the irrationality of playing the lottery and on the immorality of state sponsorship and promotion (via deceptive advertising) of lotteries.  The following e-mail, however, raises an interesting question that gives me pause: As I was reading this story of an impoverished young rancher who won $88 million net…

  • Intellectual Integrity and the Appeal to Mystery

    Bradley Schneider writes, . . . while we're on the subject of divine simplicity, I would be interested in your thoughts on the following dilemma.  Suppose you are strongly persuaded by philosophical arguments that, if God exists, God must be simple, i.e., some version of DDS must be true.  Otherwise, if God were composite, He…

  • Reason Weak and Strong

    Reason proves weak in the search for truth, but strong in the rationalizing of behavior.

  • Could it be Reasonable to Affirm the Infirmity of Reason?

    Any reasons one adduces in support of the thesis of  the infirmity of reason will share in the weakness of the faculty whose weakness is being affirmed.  Is this a problem for the proponent of the thesis? Does he contradict himself? Not obviously: he might simply accept the conclusion that the reasoning in support of…

  • Words and Distinctions

    A wise man does not quibble over words, but he insists on distinctions.