Subj : EUROPE                                                   [1]
To   : BOB EYER
From : TODD HENSON
Date : Wed Oct 25 2000 12:17 am

> 
> SGID: 1:250/710 00548591
> FM:
> -According to the above, then, Bob, I believe that essentially I
> -DID represent your position as you have re-stated it.  The
> -catastrophes, while bad, regrettable, etc., take place in a
> -setting in which a thing named "Progress" has assumed control
> -since the referees declared Modernity to be the correct direction
> -of the eschaton in "history" and insured the UNMIXED blessings of
> -rapid population growth and increase and longer life spans.  Since
> -QUALITY is not mentioned here I assume you believe there to be no
> -reasonable debate as to its presence both in population growth and
> -longer life spans.
> 
> BE:
> -I avoid the "quality" issue primarily because it involves appeal
> -to subjective value judgments and also because it can't be put
> -on a numerical scale and measured objectively.  All the various
> 
> >Your error is in assuming that everything that is truly important
> >to man MUST be something that can be measured by a number.  It
> 
> No I'm not assuming that at all.  We may, and commonly do,
> appreciate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of reality.
> 
> But to make comparative judgments of greater than or less than, it
> is necessary to use numerical variables, as there is no coherent
> way of describing a thing of one quality as greater than a thing
> of another quality.  It is obviously nonsense to describe an


What of the quality of the soul? What of the quality of a culture which
contributes to moral 
strength? Peace of mind? Family bonds? It is you who has a nonsenical view
of reality, trying 
ever so desperately to cram it into a nice numeric pigeonhole which you
feel comfortable with. It 
gives people a sense of control over reality, of intellectual conquest, of
achievement.


> apple as being greater than an orange.   But it is not nonsense


What a hollow example.


> to describe the MASS of an apple as being greater than the MASS
> of an orange.
> 
> If you're going to make greater than comparative judgments you are
> logically required to make sure you use the SAME variable for
> making the comparison.  And the reason for this is that the
> greater than relation is a relation between two numbers.
> 
> The estimation of progress by definition involves making just such
> comparative judgments.


yeah, you just go right on ahead and ignore the rest of what I said.
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