Epistemology is a theory of knowledge; it is the branch of philosophy, in fact, the one that deals with the nature, scope and limitations of knowledge. It asks the following: What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? How do we know what we know?
Gerson is once more making a questionable use of epistemology to confuse people and make it look as if everything can be blamed on the desire of liberals and humanists to wish to hold on to doubts and to promote a society free of certainties, especially religious ones.
I will let the experts debate him on these issues, but I certain will question his strange dichotomy of man and this absurd idea that it all revolves around the requirements of certainty or not.
Also I wish he would not use Martin Luther King to defend such a dichotomy. MLK is a martyr of the fight for a better epistemology one that would dismiss separating men and women by color and social and cultural differences. To claim that this country can escape the label of racist by simply insisting that all men are created equal and that can be the basis of a new epistemology is absurd in a country that took nearly 200 years just to make those principles of equality begin to appear compatible with our daily life and is still so racist that it has institutionalized racism to such a level that it is nearly impossible for people to emerge and rise from poverty as rich people get richer and the poor get poorer. I really do hope that people read this "trash" and question the very premise that Gerson dares to advance. This republican apologist should not be allowed to get away with this not because he is a republican apologist, but because no one in this country should be allowed to spread such nonsense! This is not an opinion or an editorial that takes a position, but a piece of writing that accuses progressive people in this country not to wish to have any certainty about anything! Our certainty is progress, the betterment of mankind to improve the lives of all instead of promoting only the interest of the few, be they the rich, the corporations, the religious right, the gun fanatics... all those who wish to hold on to silly interpretations of the constitution to justify the killing or wounding of over 100,000 people a year in a country that has 90 weapons for every 100 citizens!
It is not a question of certainty for a religious right winger to insist on putting the Bible under his arm and the pistol with a 30 bullet charger in his hip holder! This kind of certainty is an abuse of human intelligence!
No comments:
Post a Comment