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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!europa.asd.contel.com!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!SICS.SE!TORKEL
- Message-ID: <9212212050.AA05414@lludd.sics.se>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 21:50:52 +0100
- Sender: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
- From: torkel@SICS.SE
- Subject: Re: Deep beliefs
- Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
- In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon,
- 21 Dec 92 12:25:45 -0800. <9212212028.AA14317@sics.se>
- Lines: 21
-
- >Obviously you haven't experienced that kind of mockery, or you would
- >understand.
-
- Understand what? I asked you earlier whether the respect which you
- think we owe all deeply held beliefs consists in not mocking those
- beliefs: is this in fact what you mean? And if so, what mocking are we
- talking about here? I am not asking for any full and precise
- definition, but only for some simple clarifications. In particular, if
- I state, in all seriousness and without any mockery in any ordinary
- sense, that somebody's beliefs are false and revolting and - to use a
- somewhat familiar phrase - "beneath contempt", is this compatible with
- my respecting those beliefs in your sense?
-
- >Funny thing about values. They aren't ideas. They're objects of the
- >will, not the mind.
-
- I have no problem at all in this context with the ontological status
- of values, but only with which among several values you are referring
- to. For example, those values which Mill invoked in championing free
- speech are not the same as, and not on the face of it compatible with, the
- values invoked by those who would disallow mockery of deeply held beliefs.
-