[Buddha-l] Religious violence, Buddhist violence

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Wed, 2010-01-20 at 08:08 -0700, JKirkpatrick wrote:

> “The unexamined life is not worth living,” as Socrates said at his trial for heresy.

You cite my hero. As you point out, Socrates was put on trial for
corrupting the youth and for impiety, or dishonouring the gods, and the
way in which he did it was to encourage people to find their own answers
to important questions and to question those who provide superficial
answers. He taught people to think critically. He did not give them a
ready-made critique. That is precisely what I advocate doing (and try to
do in the classroom). In the context of the issue under question, I am
never going to give my students a facile, ready-made critique of Aum
Shinrikyo, but I hope I am constantly giving them the tools they need to
reach their own conclusions by themselves, and I trust them to do it.

> Writing op eds and journalism doesn't cut it for scholarship.

It is no substitute for scholarship, but neither is scholarship a
substitute for writing opinion pieces. One of the things I love about
the European philosophical scene (in some countries at least) is that
philosophers have a sense of social responsibility and find an outlet
for their thoughts in the so-called "popular" media. I think that's
great, although I think it is important to do one's editorializing
outside the classroom.


>  Being politically correct, to avoid censure from believers or extreme relativists, doesn't cut it, either. 

I ma not sure what the term "politically correct" means any more. It
used to be a very positive term that meant speaking and writing with
care, so a not to offend people unnecessarily through careless speech.
Learning not to call a 40-year-old woman a girl, and avoiding offensive
phrases such as "jew down" instead of "barter" was what people meant by
political correctness. I still believe in being politically correct in
that sense. Unfortunately, the phrase has been turned into a term of
abuse to denigrate liberals.

liberally and politically correctly yours,


-- 
Richard P. Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
University of New Mexico