>
>>If I follow this thread, doesn't the lack of opinions changing on it
>>support Justin's side of the argument so far ? Here's a paradox. Justin's
>>opponents could be persuaded by Justin's argument and then they ,by that
>>act, prove him wrong. ( Did somebody say that already ?)
>
>Yep, that was already pointed out. You can't use an argument to demonstrate
>that arguments aren't persuasive.
>
>ken
Well, neither of you are persuaded, so this cuts my way, not yours. I myself can recall vividly the two or three times in my life when my mind was actually changed about something important by an argument. Once, when I was in graduate school, a classmate pointed out me that some Zionist views I was expressing were incompatible with the general left wing perspectives I was also espousing. After some wiggling at that conversation, I realized he was right, and went home, called the UJA, and cancelled my pledge when they couldn't promise me that it wouldn't go to the settlements. The other time that sticks in my haed was when a prof at Michigan blew apart the nomological theory of exaplanation for me by illustrating singular explanation. She knocked over a cup and said, it fell over because I hit it. Oh, right! That clearedthe Hempelian cobwebs from head pretty fast.
For the rest, I have changed my mind, even in big ways, but not because of an argument. I came around to historical materialism, not because I encountered nice tight arguments of a Journ. of Phil, sort, but because, reading things like the Manifesto and The Making of the English Working Class, it helped make sense of my world. I was persuaded, initially, of communitarianism because I thought it had a powerful critique of liberalism, but I was already a critic of liberalism; I then ceased to believe in communitarianism in part because it got hijacked by right wingers and in part because of Bosnia, Rwanda, and an incresaing _experiential_ appreciation for the liberal virtues. I think this is how most people learn things, from life, not from arguments. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so,
--jks
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