Re: PSYCHOLOGY: Healing Pathological Belief System Addiction
Eric Watt Forste (arkuat@pobox.com)
Fri, 17 Jan 1997 13:23:27 -0800
Lee Daniel Crocker asserts that "You shouldn't offend people" and
"People can be hurt by words" are dangerous memes. This position seems
self-contradictory to me. Are not these two ideas mere ideas, mere
strings of words? If they are false, as Mr. Crocker seems to think they
are, then people cannot be hurt by words or ideas. If people cannot be
hurt by words or ideas, then how could it possibly make sense to assert
that these are "dangerous memes"? If they cannot hurt people, then how
can they be dangerous?
In philosophy we always have to be careful not to get swallowed up by
the Worm Ourobouros, the snake that bites its own tail.
I agree with Mr. Crocker's other position, that argument is best carried
on as a positive-sum game.
--
Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ http://www.pobox.com/~arkuat/