> You live in a society that values logical discourse and rationality;
Since when?
> you assume that these are superior tools for the creation of a good
society.
I do believe that they are. So you have any arguments to the contrary? ;->
> If a society does not use the tools of logic and
rationality, you consider it inferior.
No, just that its standards of reasoning are wrong.
> This is ethnocentrism
(you're assuming the superiority of your moral guidelines).
We're not talking about morality here, but about norms of reasoning. There's a difference between commiting a fallacy and a a wicked act.
And you say "ethnocentric" like it's a bad thing -- whose standards should I use if not mine?
> Yes, in this cultural context, I agree that logic and rationality
are good tools. Are they necessary and universal tools that need
to be applied in any human society to create a good society?
Who knows? Why even make grandiose claims about it?
Uh, I think we know. Because anything you could give thatw ould count as a reason would have to follow those rules, or it wouldn't be a reason at all. If, for instance, as some people say in our society, "It's in the Bible that [gays are bad, whatever], God said it, and that settles it," that's not a reason. Or nota good one. As you actuallt believe.
> Sorry if you consider this sniping, but I'm just trying to
emphasize how the moral standards you consider to be
bedrock (logic and reason) are in fact social contingencies.
Even if that is true, which is not easy to make out as you think --it's sort of unfair of me, because I used to be a professional philosopher and could bore everyone by obfuscating this to-you obvioius point six ways from Sunday in no time at all -- but even if they are in some sense contgent and social, why does that make them arbitrary or relative (to what?) or give us a reason to to insist on our ouwr standards?
> When you use your deeply held moral standards to judge other
groups who do not share your standards, you're being
ethnocentric.
Which is a hell of a lot better than tolerating evi and wickedness. The Nazis and the Stalinists and the fundamentalists do not share my liberal moral standards. That is why they are the enemy, to be defeated by political, or of comes to that, other means.
With regard to logic and reason, people who don't believe in it or use it, if they don't believe in it enough, are wrong, or mad, or in the extreme case, beings thast aren't rational enough by our standards are only questionably people.
jks
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