Subject: Descartes and Kant
From: Crispin Weston (crispinw@dircon.co.uk)
Date: Fri 07 Apr 2000 - 18:55:40 MEST
From: "Crispin Weston" <crispinw@dircon.co.uk> Subject: Descartes and Kant Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 17:55:40 +0100
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I sent thus message to the list on the 5th, but it does not appear to have
made the digest. Apologies if anyone has seen it already.
Ania writes:
<<Descartes would suggest methodological doubt as a product of the
inevitable subjectivity of all our statements>>
I suggest you re-read your Descartes, Ania. He argued precisely the
opposite: that by a process of doubting everything, we can indeed obtain
objectivity - what he referred to as 'clear and distinct ideas'. These were
ideas which passed the most stringent test of doubt; ideas which were, in
effect, impossible to doubt. The cogito ('I think, therefore I am'), was the
prime example.
Ania continues:
<<Or should we believe the designer in a Kantian way (as possibly Crispin
Weston would) because we *know* that the designer created the lane the way
it *should be*?>>
That is not my position (and I would be very surprised if it was Kant's,
either). I believe that all knowledge is provisional; that all we can do is
claim* to know; that we can never *know* that we know; that we can and
should pursue objectivity without any prospect of attaining it completely.
It is to be hoped that teachers would, in the round, be *more* knowledgeable
in respect of their subject than their students, and this superior knowledge
gives them some degree of authority (knowledge leads to authority, not
vice-versa). But I have never met a teacher who claims (even metaphorically)
to be God. In consequence, both teachers and designers should remain open to
correction and improvement from whatever quarter that may come (students
included).
By the by, I look forward to the answer to my original question: 'are all
creations equal'?
Crispin.
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