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$NATIONAL ROUND ROBIN- 8 TOSS-UP 1. MATH ... - Brown University$

ZIGGURAT but not yet falsified, etc.—will also apply in Detroit, or Denmark, or the middle of the sun. If the law is not universal, it is worthless. Pakaluk: Can you really call this faith Andrew: Of course. The scientist has no way of proving that laws of physics apply universally; she doesn’t even have evidence for this belief. She may never have thought about it before. Pakaluk: So she holds this belief because others hold it, and because it allows her to keep doing work within the system she finds herself in. I see nothing wrong with that. Andrew: Nor do I. Nor did Socrates. Everyone he knew took for granted that oracles had something important to teach them, and so he accepted this belief—which acceptance allowed him to continue his work. If Socrates had read the oracle’s prediction with the simple faith of a Pentacostalist, he would have accepted it at face value: “I am the wisest man in the world,” and that’s it. On the other hand, if he had rejected it as pure superstition (as you or I might have done), he would never have embarked on his empirical study into relative wisdom in Greek society. Pakaluk: So he accepted Apollo’s creed, but left it open to interpretation. Andrew: Right. To be frank, though, my dear Pakaluk, Socrates’ acceptance of revelation does trouble me. Revealed truth can, in principle, supercede all rational channels and implant itself directly into a system of belief. Pakaluk: I agree. Once Socrates accepts revelation, there is no guarantee that his entire philosophical program will not be derailed by it. What if he one day received divine word that, “Contrary to what you once thought, Socrates, piety is just what the gods love.” Andrew: We are in agreement here: that could have happened, in principle. Socrates may have dropped all his reasoned commitments in the face of 50
evealed truth. But it is also possible that he would have chosen to reject the revelation in favor of rational or experiential knowledge. As we saw with the Delphic oracle story, he was no fundamentalist when it came to revelation. Pakaluk: Let’s not forget that he did accept the oracle’s word. Andrew: Yes, but not uncritically; and it is entirely possible that, had his empirical study gone differently, he would have been forced to conclude that the oracle was wrong. Or, to take another case: what if the oracle’s message had been flatly contrary to reason Pakaluk: You mean some sort of riddle or paradox Andrew: Well, a cryptic paradox can always be manipulated to reveal some deeper truth. “No man of woman born,” and so on. I mean something that, no matter how you slice it, just doesn’t gel with reason. Pakaluk: Oh, so what if the oracle had told him that he would fall to his death in a hole shaped like a square circle Andrew: Exactly. Pakaluk: Then he would be forced to choose reason over revelation. Andrew: Precisely my point. Pakaluk: But wouldn’t we all Kant says we wouldn’t even be able to think outside certain fundamental ways of knowing, like categories and numbers. Andrew: Kant also considered himself a Christian. Pakaluk: So Pakaluk 51
Page 1 and 2: Z I G G U R A T fall 2006
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 15 25 37 55 59
Page 5 and 6: THE WARMEST SUPPORTERS OF THE PROPH
Page 7 and 8: The Warmest Supporters of the Proph
Page 15 and 16: THE LION’S DEN Shira Danan He rem
Page 17 and 18: 17 The Lion’s Den he hadn’t bee
Page 19 and 20: The Lion’s Den “Is that cake Ca
Page 21 and 22: The Lion’s Den revealing a bit of
Page 23: The Lion’s Den “Oh see, you rea
Page 26 and 27: ZIGGURAT Jewish law. This emphasize
Page 28 and 29: ZIGGURAT mind,” “I have a soul.
Page 30 and 31: ZIGGURAT (“hewing”) in which on
Page 32 and 33: ZIGGURAT service, known as maariv.
Page 34 and 35: ZIGGURAT addition to the few practi
Page 36 and 37: ZIGGURAT 36. Pinson 97. 37. Pinson
Page 38 and 39: ZIGGURAT Andrew: Say nothing. To no
Page 40 and 41: ZIGGURAT Pakaluk: And what do you t
Page 42 and 43: ZIGGURAT do look, with Plato’s ap
Page 44 and 45: ZIGGURAT “about to do something t
Page 46 and 47: ZIGGURAT muddy reasoning. Andrew: Y
Page 48 and 49: ZIGGURAT points in the Euthyphro (9
Page 52 and 53: ZIGGURAT Andrew: So his Christian b
Page 54 and 55: ZIGGURAT Pakaluk: And then, as you
Page 56 and 57: ZIGGURAT (and when most of us are w
Page 59 and 60: YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO KN
Page 61 and 62: 61 You Don’t Need a Weatherman co
Page 63 and 64: You Don’t Need a Weatherman died
Page 65: You Don’t Need a Weatherman 10. V
Page 68 and 69: ZIGGURAT hear people before us and
Page 70 and 71: ZIGGURAT become the archbishop of C
Page 72 and 73: ZIGGURAT even if I began I would ne
Page 74 and 75: ZIGGURAT asserts itself as the cons
Page 76 and 77: ZIGGURAT conversation can be attent
Page 78 and 79: ZIGGURAT perspective of Latinas …
Page 80 and 81: ZIGGURAT condition. Within it we dr
Page 82 and 83: Zizek, Slavoj. The Puppet and the D
Page 84 and 85: ZIGGURAT Nathan Schneider graduated

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