insanecarbonbasedlif's Journal: Quotable Dawkins

"Offence is what people take when they can't take argument" - Richard Dawkins

Moo

[Chacham]

...or they find the argument offensive.

Logical argument is a T trait, and the more logical it is, the more F is pushed out. It is the pushing out of F that many Fs find offensive.

If Dawkins made that statement, he was only half a man.

Re:

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

Naw, the point is that people often get offended instead of refuting arguments because they don't have a reasonable response. It's more a comment on people who shut down discussions, rather than being able to continue the debate. Even if an argument is offensive and a reasoned person is offended by it, they will give it a reasoned response if they have one.

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

OTOH the statement also opens up the childish retort that just because someone decides to leave a discussion because it has degenerated into name-calling, then that person therefore "loses" the debate. IOW it's an invitation to an open-ended shouting match, not a reasoned discussion.

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

Too true - though if the other party has resorted to name-calling, the debate is already over, and reasoned people are probably better off walking away, regardless of what other insults and retorts are thrown at their backs.

Re:

[Chacham]

Reasonable is not limited to the logical.

While it is true that some cannot be challenged, that are not _offended_ by a good argument, they are _scared_ by it, which shows itself in frustration.

If a person gets frustrated and leaves, perhaps it is because they could not reply. If they are offended, it is likely because the argument does not deserve a reply.

Re:

[loucura!]

By definition Reason is limited to the logical. The rationalists did not get their name because they wrote long-winded tomes about their feelings.

Re:

[Chacham]

Jung disagrees. Both T and F and rational functions, and domainant Ts and Fs are called the rationals. Thwe Ns and Ss are called irrationals.

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

Dyson also disagrees.

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:

[Chacham]

My hope that one day people who disagree will understand that it is usually because of a preference. One day...

Re:

[loucura!]

Psychology is not a hard science, as such its predictions and assertions should be treated the same as we treat Philosophy.

Re:

[Chacham]

That argument alone shows that the Scientific Method is lacking.

The Scientific method is a wonderful thing. But it is not the only thing.