Specter of Reason

As you may know, I’ve been defending one of my arguments against criticisms made by Triablogger Paul Manata . Well, I had been defending my argument, until Manata decided to delete my posts with extreme prejudice and then close the thread to prevent any further discussion of the topic. After the first time Manata deleted one of my posts, I posted an argument explaining why his stated reasons for deleting it were not valid. His stated reasons were that I had responded to his own arguments without argument, posting only dismissive comments without rational support. He said he was making “new rules,” and that dismissive comments without argument would be deleted. Since I’d been receiving all posts to that thread in my email, I had a copy of the post in question, and I was able to repost it, pointing out that Manata was incorrect in asserting my comments were made without argumentative support. I then posted three more times. The first two posts further explained the...

Peter Pike, a Triablogger, has called my intellectual integrity into question. He has accused me of "steamrolling" and "obfuscation." I want to defend the behavior in question and also reveal just how intellectually dishonest Peter's accusations are. I plan on responding to Peter's philosophical argument in my next post here. The main issue there will revolve around proper usage of the term "logic" and related concepts. I will explain how Peter has failed to use the term "logic" (also, "logical" and "logically") in a coherent manner, and how a proper understanding of logic allows us to avoid the obstacles Peter has placed in front of us. Here, however, I am only going to deal with the matter of intellectual integrity. It begins with the word, "logic." Summarizing what he thinks is my position, Peter wrote, "The universe isn't logical; it just happens to at this point behave in a way that appr...

I’ve been involved in a discussion at Triablogue , a Christian blog whose “default mode” is Calvinism. A couple weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard of Triablogue. Then they picked up on my harsh treatment of Rhology and decided to make a point of criticizing my arguments and views. I’ve been trying to respond to all of the posts aimed at me, but there are many I haven’t gotten to at all, and others which I haven’t been able to respond to in full. The discussion might be dying down, but I can’t be sure. At the moment there are a total of three Triablogue discussion threads devoted to me (links: one , two , three ). I don't know if I should be honored or dismayed. I can’t say I’m impressed with the argumentative tactics being employed over there. There are a few contributors who might be genuine, thoughtful and sincere, and who I could probably have a simple, intelligent discussion with. Those few are unfortunately overshadowed by a handful of arrogant, manipulative, and seemingl...