From: Gerald O'Connell <goc.nul>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:30:37 +0000
Archived: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:28:00 -0500
Subject: Re: Ray Stanford's Open Letter To Tony Bragalia


>From: Jerome Clark <jkclark.nul>
>To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <post.nul>
>Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 08:32:21 -0500
>Subject: Re: Ray Stanford's Open Letter To Tony Bragalia

<snip>

>As a general principle in a perfect world, skepticism - as in
>proper caution and doubt - is a very good and necessary thing.
>In rhetorical practice, when applied to the UFO phenomenon and
>other heresies, however, it's simply a set-in-stone
>predisposition against anomalous reports.

You may have a point here, but I don't think that justifies
giving up on the real meaning of terms that ought to be
perfectly serviceable. 'Scepticism' and 'conscientious' are two
such terms.

>In the real world, "conscientious skepticism," at least as
>Martin means it (in the spirit, one might say, of the triumph of
>hope over experience), amounts to an oxymoron.

I disagree - I think it is more of a tautology. Proper
scepticism needs to be carried out in good faith - hence
Martin's  qualification. I think it does the job quite nicely,
and reminds us what scepticism is supposed to be about:
intellectual honesty.

>Far better, in
>fact and practice, to investigate, analyze, and let the facts
>fall where they may without ritual mouthing of worn-out
>rhetorical tropes. Whether it pretends to be conscientious or
>not, "skepticism" long ago lost any actual meaning in
>ufological/anomalistic discourse, except as a more respectable-
>sounding expression of the hard-right ideology otherwise known
>as the disbelief tradition.

I'm with you there Jerry, but I have to disagree with your
response to the problem. These terms need to be reclaimed for
what they are, and their misuse needs to be opposed. The
alternative is linguistic impoverishment.

Scepticism is only scepticism when it is even-handed in its
application. The fun comes when knee-jerk sceptics who do
violence to the term's real meaning are required to apply
scepticism conscientiously to  their own arguments. The more I
think about Martin's neologism the more I like it.


Gerald O'Connell
http://www.onlyport.com



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