Time for Metaphysical Discussions
There are important sub-topic discussions need to flesh this out. Let’s take metaphysics. Both the modernists (Hume to Russell) and the Postmodernist have a fetisch over certainty.
- The modernist say that anything not proven true or false is meaningless (eg. metaphysics).
- The postmodernist say that there is no truth, therefore all is meaningless (eg especially metaphysics).
This is one of my favorite quotes of the Pragmatist CS Peirce (via John Sowa):
Find a scientific man who proposes to get along without any metaphysics — not by any means every man who holds the ordinary reasonings of metaphysicians in scorn — and you have found one whose doctrines are thoroughly vitiated by the crude and uncriticized metaphysics with which they are packed. . . .Every man of us has a metaphysics, and has to have one; and it will influence his life greatly. Far better, then, that that metaphysics should be criticized and not be allowed to run loose.(Italics added)
Our greatest failure is that we have lost the art of reasoned debate. If we agree only to disagree, dialogue and communication is dead. Metaphysics is at the center of dialogue.
