> On 15 Feb 2014, at 10:58 pm, David Nyman <da...@davidnyman.com> wrote: > >> On 15 February 2014 10:25, LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Yes, I wonder that. I generally assume people arguing on a forum like this >> are rational (ish) and hence that they intend what they say and when they >> keep avoiding questions it's because they don't want to answer them, and >> when they're rude and arrogant it's intentional, and so on. But sometimes I >> think they can't be conscious of what they're doing, that surely no one >> would want to be like that deliberately, at least no one interersted in >> truth and science - maybe money and politics. It's a mystery, to me at least. > > Galen Strawson recently quoted some remarks of Herbert Feigl that, mutatis > mutandis, might well apply more generally: "Philosophers are hypersensitive > .. in their repressed perplexities. A puzzle which does not resolve itself > within a given favored philosophical frame is repressed very much in the > manner in which unresolved intrapersonal conflicts are repressed. I surmise > that psychologically the first kind may be subsumed under the second. > Scholars cathect certain ideas so strongly and their outlook becomes so ego > involved that they erect elaborate barricades of defenses, merely to protect > their pet ideas from the blows (or the slower corrosive effects) of > criticism. No one can be sure that he is not doing this sort of thing in a > particular case, and I claim no exception for myself." (The Mental and the > Physical). > > And Sam Harris, in his reply to Dan Dennett in their recent debate on free > will, remarks that he's ".. begun to doubt whether any smart person retains > the ability to change his mind". Of course one might well wonder how > applicable the term "smart" would be if this were indeed the case (leave > alone the question of how "free" or otherwise we are to change our minds!). > > David > > In the case of Edgar it is so screamingly obvious that his continued appearance on this list is an expression of deep personal need to be appreciated as the genius he indubitably considers himself to be. It's actually quite instructive to see how this plays out in his posts. He has revealed a few personal tidbits about his past that lend weight to this - no need to repeat them here, but his agenda is indeed ego-driven and thus anti-rational, although he has not the slightest intention of acknowledging this since people have clearly been taking exception to his arrogant personal style for most of his life. Which is almost certainly why he has landed here, where he can simply bleat-away without fear of real reprisal. All of his thinking is messy and derivative and shot-through with lacunae and selective reasoning. This boy has never truly learnt how to think. I repeat again that the only effective way to deal with bullies and thickheads is to ignore their posts. Every post by Edgar is essentially an invitation to cross swords with his out-of-control ego, desperate for attention. The continued refusal to answer questions concerning his fundamental assumptions would have him thrown out of any science academy worth the name. You can of course, get away with any shit you want over the Internet.
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