KriTijism

[Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>]

> Now I'll make this promise: the _minute_ Jon admits that his
> judgement of Kate's work is solely a result of his own taste, and
> that he doesn't really have any concrete support for that judgement,
> IED will make a pledge not to bother Love-Hounds again about Jon's
> infantile musical bug-a-boos (not in so many words!); and I'll also
> admit that I can be a bit hasty to flame when I see criticism of
> Kate's work.

*ANY* judgment of anyone's work is solely a result of one's own tatse,
and can have no "concrete support" -- including judgment of the music
of Madonna and Lionel Ritchie.  Is this going to stop me from saying
that Lionel Ritchie's music sucks.  No way!  I think that any
intelligent listener has the ability to determine that any objective
statement about inately subjective phenomena really indicates just a
certain degree of strength of belief in the opinion.

This can also clearly be seen in the notion that we even seem to
believe that there are objective facts at all!  For example, if I say
"I am sitting in a red chair" (and I am indeed sitting in a red
chair), we might agree that this is an objective fact.  But it is
really no more an objective fact than the statement "Lionel Ritchie's
music sucks".  It just so happens that because of the peculiar nature
of the universe, the vast majority of the people in the would agree
with the statement "I am sitting in a red chair" (if they were allowed
to observe me while I made the assertion).  The fact that almost
everyone would agree with my statement leads me to a *very* strong
conviction of its truth, which causes me to utter it in the form of a
fact, rather than in the form of an opinion.  But really it is no more
provable than any other opinion.  (Because no "proof" of this
statement can disprove the hypothesis that we are just all being
fooled by an evil demon.)

There are no such things as "facts".  Statements uttered in the form
of a fact are really just very strongly held opinions.  Thus I can say
in good conscience that "Lionel Ritchie's music sucks" because I
believe this statement just as strongly as the statement "I am sitting
in a red chair".  Thus I can also utter in good conscience the
statement, "'Reaching Out' sucks" -- because it does.

|>oug

"K is for KATE who was struck with an axe"