20 April 2006
Dennett's Latest
In the end, Dennett didn’t go as far as I feared he would in Breaking the Spell
. He merely asks the religious to lead considered lives, to grapple with the tough questions with the benefit of post-Enlightenment thinking. If a religious person is comfortable with belief as a natural phenomenon than that is good enough, because it is impossible to prove otherwise. A considered skepticism is the best we can do for knowledge, after that the William James Will to Believe still applies. According to James, there are times when a leap of faith is required to make any philosophical move, and in these instances, any faith will do. James includes the scientific method in faith in these instances. Unfortunately, those who have found Truth with a capital T are usually uninterested in philosophical arguments of why they must be wrong. Certainty is not in our cards, we are not to know in this life, regardless of how bitter a pill that is to swallow.
Dennett closes this way:
So, in the end, my central policy recommendation is that we gently, firmly educate the people of the world, so that they can make truly informed choices about their lives. Ignorance is nothing shameful; imposing ignorance is shameful. Most people are not to blame for their own ignorance, but if they willfully pass it on, they are to blame. One might think this is so obvious that it hardly needs proposing, but in many quarters there is substantial resistance to it. People are afraid of being more ignorant than their children – especially, apparently, their daughters. We are going to have to persuade them that there are few pleasures more honorable and joyful than being instructed by your own children. It will be fascinating to see what institutions and projects our children will devise, building on the foundations earlier generations have built and preserved for them, to carry us all safely into the future.
It is a pity this was written a good year before the Danish Mohammed cartoon riots, they fit right in to Dennett’s arguments. Religious-based ignorance is not somehow immune to polite scrutiny. In fact, as the riots show, there is no better place to start.
. He merely asks the religious to lead considered lives, to grapple with the tough questions with the benefit of post-Enlightenment thinking. If a religious person is comfortable with belief as a natural phenomenon than that is good enough, because it is impossible to prove otherwise. A considered skepticism is the best we can do for knowledge, after that the William James Will to Believe still applies. According to James, there are times when a leap of faith is required to make any philosophical move, and in these instances, any faith will do. James includes the scientific method in faith in these instances. Unfortunately, those who have found Truth with a capital T are usually uninterested in philosophical arguments of why they must be wrong. Certainty is not in our cards, we are not to know in this life, regardless of how bitter a pill that is to swallow.Dennett closes this way:
So, in the end, my central policy recommendation is that we gently, firmly educate the people of the world, so that they can make truly informed choices about their lives. Ignorance is nothing shameful; imposing ignorance is shameful. Most people are not to blame for their own ignorance, but if they willfully pass it on, they are to blame. One might think this is so obvious that it hardly needs proposing, but in many quarters there is substantial resistance to it. People are afraid of being more ignorant than their children – especially, apparently, their daughters. We are going to have to persuade them that there are few pleasures more honorable and joyful than being instructed by your own children. It will be fascinating to see what institutions and projects our children will devise, building on the foundations earlier generations have built and preserved for them, to carry us all safely into the future.
It is a pity this was written a good year before the Danish Mohammed cartoon riots, they fit right in to Dennett’s arguments. Religious-based ignorance is not somehow immune to polite scrutiny. In fact, as the riots show, there is no better place to start.
