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                                             June 12, 2011
      ALL_THINGS_SHINING

   Dreyfus & Kelly sing the
   praises of the charismatic
   greatness of people such as
   Rudolf Nureyev, but as Gary       Is one person's
   Willis points out, some people    whoosh moment as
   may feel that way about Lady      good as another's?
   Gaga.
                                     If you say "yes", then
                                     we're back at the
                                     authors call "nihilism".   Which I would
                                                                call relativism.
                                     If you say "no", then
                                     the next question is
                                     whose whoosh do you
                                     choose?  How do you
                                     know if you're one of
                                     the enlightened one's
                                     with a trustworthy
                                     woosh?
       SHINING_WHAFFLES
                                        Dreyfus and Kelly's answer is
                                        rather weak: They claim you
                                        can develop a skill to spot
                                        the dark side of the whoosh,
       It would appear                  but this is a skill that can
       that they feel                   not be talked about, it can
       it's a waste of                  only be developed through
       time to study                    experience.
       history and try
       to draw conclusions                Since they insist that they
       from it.                           are not relativists, we might
                                          conclude that they expect
  And yet, there       SHINING_KANT       everyone who makes an effort
  are other kinds                         will converge on the the same,
  of connections to                       universal judgement.
  humanity besides
  massive gatherings.                       But actually, they don't
  Strange that                              expect any *single* universal
  someone would                             answer on any question:
  write a book that
  seems dismissive                          Kelly insists that they believe
  of the very idea                          in an "incommensurate plurality"
  of writing books.                         of truths (gods, not God).
                                            There are many truths, but
                                            they are not *personal* truths.
                                            There's a *pantheon* out
                                            there (albiet accessible
                                            only to expert baristas
                                            and the like).

                                              So *consistency* is never an
                                              issue, you can jump horses
                                              mid-race provided they're all
                                              divinely inspired horses.


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