Thursday, June 05, 2014

Hmm …

… The point of view of the universe | OUPblog.



This piece is shot through with so many assumptions, starting with the assumption that "reason is capable of presenting us with objective, impartial, non-natural reasons for action" —  surely you cannot use reason to demonstrate this, for that would seem to involve a petitio principii — that it is really hard to take it altogether seriously.
The use of the phrase "greenhouse gases" is shrewd, though when one considers that quite a few organisms besides man emit them, some sense of proportion might be in order. Would it not also be reasonable to think of man's contribution to the matter as just another aspect of evolution, which I'm sure the authors do not regard as in any way guided toward an end?
I think what we have here are contemporary counterparts to the ancient sophists, clever rhetoricians hawking a point of view, in this case, the point of view of the entire universe. That's certainly maintaining a safe distance from falsifiability.

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