495px-David_Hume

Here it is people, the answer.

(The question, by the way, is: politics – why?)

The answer is:

Hume’s Guillotine’: One of the core philosophical problems of all time. That is ‘‘can an ought-statement (we ought to do …) be entailed by an is-statement or set of is-statements (the situations is …)?’

What this means is that just because we can describe reality doesn’t mean that we can logically derive an ought-statement from that description.

So we can marshal as much evidence as we can to argue our cases but at the end of the day what we are really arguing over is our values and beliefs.

I believe these are right but they can never be proven absolutely. Hence politics.

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KevenSevenBernard MarxKQµårk 死神escribacatnellie Recent comment authors
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KevenSeven
Member

Bernard,

Thanks for a thought provoking comment. Welcome aboard and keep them coming.

nellie
Member

Beliefs differ for different people, and there’s strength in numbers. Hence politics. That’s my take, at any rate.

KQµårk 死神
Member

As my Japanese Western Civ teacher use to tell us in the real world perception is reality.

bito
Member

Sorry, O/T Landriew(sp) is going to vote to invoke cloture.

nellie
Member

Woo hoo.

I’ve been resisting turning this thing on after spending an entire Saturday watching the House, but I guess I’m going to give in now.

escribacat
Member

Me too! I felt cross-eyed and almost ill after that last one! But here I am with the dang thing on again! Chores…chores…I’ll get some chores done during the speeches where the repubs try to turn our health care bill into an abortion bill…..slimebags!!!

nellie
Member

There’s a thread up now just for discussing the debate, if you’re feeling so inclined. 🙂

bito
Member

Why cannot one logically derive a just action? Do I need to accept your premise that mankind is without any innate sense of what is best for his survivability? Is it just a “belief” or “value” that One has to eat, drink and shelter oneself to survive?

dndobson
Member

Very well stated.

I would add that politics also derives from a need to work together for a common interest (which likely evolved out of a realization that working apart and at cross purposes was generally bad for everyone.)

All these absurd Senate rules making HCR so difficult likely exist to give the losers a sense of being part of he process. The will of the majority is not always enough, in our system, and it wasn’t that long ago that I was glad for that un-balancing of power. Of course it can go to far…but nothing is more contentious in politics than changing the rules of the game.