The Modern Dilemma - The Sophistry of Process vs Socratic Inquiry

[Kirkhill]

The rot that could bring Western civilisation down began with these ancient Greek teachers

In the battle between sophistry and the pursuit of truth, the former is clearly winning

www.telegraph.co.uk

"the Sophists were more interested in teaching their pupils how to “win” arguments and become famous than in cultivating wisdom.

'Their services were sold to young noblemen and politicians who wanted to “persuade” their citizens. An orator, they thought, “does not need to know what is really just”, nor what is “really good or noble”. Persuasion, on their account, “comes from what seems to be true, not from the truth.”"

....

"This was not, for Socrates, merely a rival approach to truth. It was more serious than that. What was at stake in Athens was the question of whether public life ought to be anchored to anything real or whether it would dissolve into a competition of performances.

"Western civilisation is the inheritor of the Socratic tradition which insists that reality is more important than appearances."

....

Performace art. Virtue signalling. Sophistry.

The opposite of the enlightenment sought by David Hume and Adam Smith.

We would now rather be seen to bend the knee to settled truths than engage in disputatious science.

 

[Infanteer]

Yeah, but we don't teach Western Civilization and its texts anymore because its racist.

 

[FJAG]

This brings up an older Monk Debate from 2018. The resolution was: "Be it resolved that what you call political correctness, I call progress."

The fun part was that Stephen Fry argued against the resolution at the side of his partner Jorden Petersen. Ignore the initial long-winded bumph and go to the 30 minute mark where Stephen takes six minutes to explain why he would argue a position which most would think that he'd stand on the other side of.