The World Is Out There, But Descriptions

Open-mindedness Should Not Be Fostered Because, As Scripture Teaches, Truth Is Great And Will Prevail, Nor Because, As Milton Suggests, Truth Will Always Win In A Free And Open Encounter. It Should Be Fostered For Its Own Sake.

Complaints About The Social Irresponsibility Of The Intellectual Typically Concern The Intellectual's Tendency To Marginalize Herself, To Move Out From One Community By Interior Identification Of Herself With Some Other Community - For Example, Another Country Or Historical Period... It Is Not Clear That Those Who Thus Marginalize Themselves Can Be Criticized For Social Irresponsibility. One Cannot Be Irresponsible Toward A Community Of Which One Does Not Think Of Oneself As A Member. Otherwise Runaway Slaves And Tunnelers Under The Berlin Wall Would Be Irresponsible.

As Long As We Try To Project From The Relative And Conditioned To The Absolute And Unconditioned, We Shall Keep The Pendulum Swinging Between Dogmatism And Skepticism. The Only Way To Stop This Increasingly Tiresome Pendulum Swing Is To Change Our Conception Of What Philosophy Is Good For. But That Is Not Something Which Will Be Accomplished By A Few Neat Arguments. It Will Be Accomplished, If It Ever Is, By A Long, Slow Process Of Cultural Change - That Is To Say, Of Change In Common Sense, Changes In The Intuitions Available For Being Pumped Up By Philosophical Arguments.

[walt] Whitman And [humanist Educator John] Dewey Tried To Substitute Hope For Knowledge. They Wanted To Put Shared Utopian Dreams - Dreams Of An Ideally Decent And Civilized Society - In The Place Of Knowledge Of God's Will, Moral Law, The Laws Of History, Or The Facts Of Science.... As Long As We Have A Functioning Political Left, We Still Have A Chance To Achieve Our Country, To Make It The Country Of Whitman's And Dewey's Dreams.

The Usual Picture Of Socrates Is Of An Ugly Little Plebeian Who Inspired A Handsome Young Nobleman To Write Long Dialogues On Large Topics.