Word: priori
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...overly complex. After all, I had not even heard of Kant, much less been able to name-drop The Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals in section. Yet despite all the references to Herder, Plato, Machiavelli and Voltaire, I detected some resonance in this history of ideas. What "a priori" meant I did not know, but the basic themes I understood. Berlin was saying that theories were wonderful stuff, great to think about and even more fascinating to create; that there is no limit to where theory can lead in the real world (I knew at least of Marx...
...should a minority citizen of middle-or upper-middle class background, of a similar education and acculturation as any caucasian, be given a priori an advantage? To make up for the centuries of discrimination preceding 1863? Or, for that matter, 1963? We no longer live in that world, thank God. Should we pretend we still...
...want engineering. Such laws can easily (and there are innumerable precedents in history) degenerate into a tyranny of the majority by those who believe everyone's morality fell out of the sky and landed on Mount Sinai, and those who don't. Unlike what Lat said, we should a priori be skeptical and hesitant toward laws which restrict the freedom of a group which wants to be left alone. --Joshua E. Seims...
...argue against laws because they constitute "impositions of morality" is a waste of time. Let us simply evaluate laws on their own merits, without engaging in a priori dismissal of proposals just because they are religious in origin There are many different moralities in our pluralistic society. What we must recognize is that some moralities are simply better than others...
...relevant question is whether it would be intellectually responsible to engage in an a priori dismissal of a widely contested, 850-page long work...