by Chris Billowsin Political Ponderings, Republic of Bloggers2 commentstags: Components of Human Nature, Human Condition, Human History, Human Misery, Political Opinion, Virtuous Discourse
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter The New Sickness Unto Death at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments. Dear Chris, Thank you for engaging me in this poignant discussion about the COVID-19 crisis the world is facing. In addition, thank you for engaging in a private email discussion concerning the dark tone of your post. That was a highly meaningful exchange. I don’t intend to change your mind about the harms committed in reaction to COVID-19, but I will challenge you on some of your specific terminology. I do so to better inform my understanding about your position and to ask you to clarify where I see contradictions in your position. I think we share a common horror that reaction to COVID-19 has done as much damage as the virus itself but would differ about what where our interventions should lie. Now on to parts of your letter: — > Every expectation has now been upended by this monomaniacal fear of an infection that is certainly serious enough to warrant action, yet nowhere near dangerous enough to warrant abandoning democracy. … Are […]
by Chris Billowsin Republic of Bloggers0 commentstags: Blogging, Components of Human Nature, Contrarian, Human Condition, Human Misery, Self Analysis, Virtuous Discourse
Some Background This blog-post is an indirect response to a blog-letter discourse that Chris Bateman and myself recently concluded that was about knowledge and how we know that we know. You can read it if you are so inclined at https://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2015/09/knowing-that-we-know.html In reading Chris’ response, I was struck by the examples he used, particularly how he refers to John Haidt’s bias against philosophy. This got me thinking… I too have a bias against philosophy. It is apparent that Chris Bateman and I have different approaches about this question of knowledge. His focus on knowledge is cognitively and philosophically (epistemology) based, mine was emotional. This difference is likely from divergent backgrounds: Chris is a game designer, author, philosopher, and professor, while I am a social worker, ex-politcal party activist, and a wanna-be game designer. It was my game design interest that led me to Chris Bateman’s blog, where he taught me the value and practice of Virtuous Discourse. Enough background; the intrigue for me and the focus of this post is about my bias against philosophy. The Folly of Modern Philosophy As a part of my university coursework, I took Introduction to Philosophy which I enjoyed and did well in, but […]
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