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From: mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (Mark Weiser)
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Characterization
Message-ID: <3760@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 00:00:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.3760
Posted: Thu Oct  9 00:00:35 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 05:16:44 EDT
References: <3279@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> <15634@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (Mark Weiser)
Organization: University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Sci.
Lines: 32

In article <337@husc6.HARVARD.EDU> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes:
> . . .
>	So my stance, as it were, would be to mistrust all rational
>frameworks, and, in fact, to discard them when doing serious
>philosophy (what I am attempting to explain to you now is not
>what I call serious philosophy, though it is certainly more serious
>than most philosophy which is arrogantly proclaimed as "serious.")
>This stance suggests radically different approaches to confronting
>reality as a human being (I do not claim to be the first to suggest
>this, but I do seem to be one of the few to argue its rational
>justifiability.)
>
>	The validity of this stance must be confirmed empirically.
>It has proven in my case to be of the utmost importance, and in fact
>was expounded very well (although somewhat cryptically to the modern
>Western reader) by Lao Tzu some 2,500 years ago.  Despite its
>antiquity, however, I do not believe that it has really been understood
>and practiced by very many; however it remains a telling critique
>and indictment of almost all of traditional Western philosophy.
>(Hee hee - I love making ridiculous pronouncements like that,
>especially when they're true, Hee hee).

"Almost all" saves you.  Heidegger, Gadamer, and others in what is
called "hermeneutic" philosophy also argue the rational justifiability
of what you say, and argue it firmly within, and by detailed comparison
to, Western philosophy.  References:  Heidegger: "What is a Thing"
(actually a critique of Kant), Gadamer: "Reason in the Age of Science"
-mark
-- 
Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark@maryland	Phone: +1-301-454-7817
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