 |
| A mirror on the wall, framed by a snake eating its own tail [the notorious ourobouros], an illustration of self-referential self defeat |
Assert that truth is un-know-able? That's a truth and a knowledge claim.
Dismiss morality as entirely subjective? That is an implicit claim to objective truth of moral character.
Sneer at the reality of God? How, then, do you adequately account for yourself as
- a responsible,
- rational,
- inescapably morally governed,
- significantly free,
- contingent creature
- in a clearly contingent world, one
- requiring a causally sufficient necessary being as root of reality?
Deny that you are morally governed? So, why is it that you too are appealing to our known duties to truth, right reason, warrant etc? Deny that the world must have had a beginning rooted in causally adequate necessary being? How, then do you account for a world from utter non being or from circular retro-causation or for the impossible supertask of bridging a transfinite span in finite stage successive steps -- such as years?
And, many more.
The point is clear, to be tenable, a worldview must be able to live with itself, not merely parasite off distracting attention from its internal incoherence by projecting fault and blame to others. (Even this, will readily invite some to try to do just that. Nope, the point of comparative difficulties is, that all worldviews bristle with difficulties, so we need to carry out a comparative analysis involving factual adequacy, coherence and explanatory balance. Hard to do.)
Hence, too, the issue of sawing off the branch on which one sits:
Speaking of, a world from utter non-being, here is Richard Dawkins publicly stumbling on the point:
And if worldviews struggle here, how much more, ideologies and their captive, community-dominating institutions? As in, the seven mountains or pillars of influence:
In short, we need to ask some pretty pointed questions about where the Overton Windows for our region and civilisation are being pulled to:
That, in turn raises big questions about the political dynamics at work:
Not to mention, the core logic:
It is hard to escape the issue -- if you doubt this, ponder a now manifestly grossly mismanaged COVID Pandemic -- that our region and wider civilisation are dancing heedlessly on the edge of a cliff:
There is much food for thought in that, but it all takes us back to self referential incoherence and breakdown of soundness and prudence. Speaking of, here is a pointed illustration that -- though often cynically dismissed -- has a sobering point:
It is time for us to turn back from the cliff's edge. END
