Re: writ large, another sip

I answered that question in the e-mail you first responded to, but I'll
go into more detail now. I originally said that personality profiles
such as the Myers Briggs tend to peg most people as not being very
predisposed to abstract thinking. It's not that people are generally
incapable of it, but don't generally prefer to think in that mode, at
least according to that particular measure.

Now I'd like you to compare this kind of generality to the generalities
that Daniel is making about academics/intellectuals (which tend to be
conflated in this discussion) -- that they are arrogant, that they
assume their own superiority, and that they are disconnected from "real"
life.

The generality I employed was based upon some research (demographics),
tends to be validated by experience, and doesn't really say anything
about the personalities of most people. You can be humble and not
predisposed to abstract reasoning, or arrogant and not predisposed to
abstract reasoning, or chaste, or promiscuous, or patient, or
ill-tempered...you get the picture, the list could go on and on...and
not be predisposed to abstract reasoning. Or, you can be all these
things and be predisposed to abstract reasoning.

Daniel, on the other hand, was ascribing to a large and diverse group of
people a narrow set of personality traits. His original comments were
essentially no better than saying all blacks are dishonest or shiftless.
 The nature, structure, and source of his original comment was almost
exactly parallel to the example I just provided.

Jim

L. Manning Vines wrote:

>Jim writes:
><< Most "intellectuals" hold to some form of ontological or moral relativism
>and tend to be anti-dogmatic. >>
>
>Ontological and moral relativism can certainly be dogmatic.
>
>And it remains unclear to me why you are so reluctant to generalize
>academians when you were so perfectly eager to generalize the commonalty.
>
>-robbie
>
>

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Received on Wed Apr 30 10:33:18 2003