Monday, April 25, 2011

Dogmatically Undogmatic

If I'm dogmatic about anything it's about being undogmatic.

I don't believe in anything very strongly except for my very strong belief that I shouldn't believe anything very strongly.

Is that paradoxical? Do I contradict myself?

Perhaps. Occasionally, I've had people try to convince me that my undogmatic dogmatism is self-refuting. They use the same argument you hear used a lot to refute postmodern epistemology. The postmodernist says, "There are no absolute truths." So the question is asked, "Is that statement an absolute truth? Because if it is, you've contradicted yourself. And if it's not true then there are absolute truths."

And guess what? This sentence is false.

So is it a contradiction to be dogmatically undogmatic? I'm not sure. But in a certain sense I don't really care. Because I'm not really trying to make a logical argument. My concerns here are more about ethics and interpersonal relationships. My allergic reaction to dogmatism isn't meant to be an epistemological claim. My problem with dogmatism is simply this:
I don't like dogmatism because I don't like the people it creates.
And if I contradict myself, well, I'll just embrace my inner Whitman:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

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