Monday, February 13, 2012

An open letter promoting reason

It is clear, then, that such a principle is the most certain of all and we can formulate it thus: "It is impossible for the same thing at the same time to belong and not belong to the same thing at the same time and in the same respect" - Aristotle on the law of contradiction.


Any argument which contradicts itself or is contradicted by the facts of reality must be false.  This is principle is the basis for distinguishing truth from falsehood, it is the concept upon which all other concepts may be built.  The ancients knew this, as well as many contemporary rational and empirical philosophers.  Sadly, this simple method of determining what is true and what is false has not yet been extended to today's popular theories about what is good and just.  Clearly, if morality is to be valid and objective (aka true) then we must examine current moral theories with the same logical methodology that we would for theories of physics or biology.

In the Socratic tradition, Jan Helfeld has extended this clarity to those who have most passionately proclaimed the virtues of conformity to reality, and has met the same contempt that sent Socrates to the poisoned cup.
When a contradiction in one's thinking is not met with curiosity, then this exposes the "thinker" as a mere sophist who uses language to confuse rather than clarify.  This basic knowledge dates back to Athens, and I know that rational thinkers like yourself understand the notion perfectly well.  But what people need isn't a disconnected archipelago of hidden conscience, people need a group of dedicated leaders who aren't afraid to connect their emotions with the conclusions of logic and evidence, people need to see the blatant and often skipped over mess of lies which hold up the leviathan we know as the American Government.

Please, stop nitpicking and revive the debate about principles.  Unwanted State interventions can no longer be fought using pragmatics, we MUST illuminate the moral contradictions and to hell with the consequences.

Now, we won't be murdered for questioning power the way Socrates did as we can see from Jan's interviews with Chris Matthews and Jim Moran, even if it seems like they want to strangle the guy.
We should be grateful that we weren't born in a time when questioning was met with true violence.  Our gratitude should be shown by vigorously dismantling the flaws in principles which DO still cause that violence and destruction.

These videos are some of the best educational instruments available for this critically important topic.  Forcefully taking somebody's property is either moral, or it is immoral.  It cannot logically stand as both.  I hope you will considers these notions on air, for the benefit of the audience and for your own virtue's sake.  Courage is the ability to speak the truth under perilous circumstances, and it seems those circumstances are constantly getting worse.  For the sake of all that is true and good, stand up and start fighting the real fight.

Thank you for reading, I hope you can find the courage to feature work like Jan's on your media outlets and begin to identify the causes of society's current horrors.
Sincerely,
Michael Huttner

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