22 Feb '12 03:31>1 edit
“Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous. There are always thoughts that stand opposed to it. Many people are discomfited, or even outraged, by philosophical questions. Some are fearful that their ideas may not stand up as well as they would like if they start to think about them. … Reflection opens an avenue to criticism, and the folkways may not like criticism. In this way, ideologies become closed circles, primed to feel outraged by the questioning mind.”
—Simon Blackburn, in his lovely little book, Think.
A priest-theologian friend of mine once said that religious doctrine was a way of putting “a fence around the truth”. However, without (continuing) critical reflection, does not such a notion of “truth”, that needs a protective fence of required belief (unquestionable—for the “faithful” anyway—doctrine), become little more than asserted presumption?
Blackburn’s thought here is not directed strictly against religion. But it does strike me that it is directed against any presumptive beliefs, and the ideological “closed circles” that sometimes seem used to fence them in.
—Simon Blackburn, in his lovely little book, Think.
A priest-theologian friend of mine once said that religious doctrine was a way of putting “a fence around the truth”. However, without (continuing) critical reflection, does not such a notion of “truth”, that needs a protective fence of required belief (unquestionable—for the “faithful” anyway—doctrine), become little more than asserted presumption?
Blackburn’s thought here is not directed strictly against religion. But it does strike me that it is directed against any presumptive beliefs, and the ideological “closed circles” that sometimes seem used to fence them in.