2014-2-PHI110
2013/4 PHI110: Philosophy, Morality and Society
Write an essay: "I like it because I like it" -- strange loop, preference for 'feel' or 'aesthetic' moral judgements. It looks better and feels better and I like it better. Quote Pirsig and the Church of Reason. Question the primacy and legitimacy of 'reasonable' (rational/formal/idealic/mathematical) conclusions. One consequential axiom gives rise to a tautology: I like it because I like it. Reason undoes itself. Godel incompleteness, Turing halting-problem, p!=np, Pirsig and Values, deconstruction/postmodernism, art. I believe in Reason because I believe in Reason. What is your reason for believing in reason -- the question presupposes the legitimacy of reason -- you don't have to believe in reason, but if you don't you have to provide a reason! We can reason ourselves out of a belief in reason. If you ask "Why?" you're seeking reason, if you say "because" you are invoking reason...