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From: gtaylor@cornell.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: Annotated Humanist (A Christian speaks out)
Message-ID: <49@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-May-84 22:34:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.49
Posted: Wed May 16 22:34:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 17-May-84 07:12:34 EDT
References: <250@wucs.UUCP>, <677@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 32

Excuse me for entering this debate a mite obliquely, but I
am a bit uneasy with the use of the term "Rationalism" that
Rich is making here. I think that he means something like
'A way of dealing with things that asserts the primacy of
Reason applied to Empirical sense data." (whew!) I don't think
that's exactly the right use of the word. Rich's discussion of
removing all but the simplest reasons for any state of affairs
is the ever true, ever sharp Occam's razor. I do not believe that
Rich is wielding the razor as a Rationalist, however...more like
an Enlightenment thinker (I'd use Kant here as an example, but
I think that Rich might take some offense, as Kant was a man of
pretty strong religious commitment). In fact, it would seem to me
that the Rationalist belief in synthetic a priori knowledge
would be generally unacceptable to Rich.

As the term is used, I can see some side disagreements springing
up by the row on trying to argue Rationalism vs. Rationality
and so on. In fact, it's curious to note that the Humanist
debate is really coming to resemble nothing so much as the old
tried and true School of Athens debates between Plato and Aristotle.

I would also like to applaud the courage of the brave gentleman
who has stepped forward to try for a less flamely CHristian
formulation of the whole Humanist controversy. It appears that
the restatement is not quite as acceptable as Rich might like,
but it is a bit quieter.

Just when I was beginning to fear that this was a net case of
"The wrath that turneth away soft answers........"

gtaylor