Quote of the Day

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You mistook my reference to an ethics professor, and that is my fault. The 
man to whom I referred happens to be a professor, who focused on ethics; but 
that has nothing to do with my point -- no more than the fact that he is 
well over six feet tall, and his name is spelled with fewer than 144 letters 
are relevant.

I used the description "ethics professor" as being less general than 
"someone I know" because I don't think of him that way. Take what I wrote as 
somewhere between "someone I know" and his name.

Of course pessimism is not a disposition, at least not in philosophical 
discourse (philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophy of 
psychology). It was discredited year ago. The claim that it is not an 
emotional response is dubious. It certainly need not begin with a cognitive 
realization, or discovery.

Finally, your comment that Most Philosophers and Ethics Professors who are 
pessimists are just like the rest of us won't wash. The first, and trivial, 
point is that you don't know most philosophers. I have been around a wide 
varity of philosophy professors all my adult life. I suspect, but can only 
suspect, that I have had greater exposure to philosphy and philosophers than 
you have. A-and I think you claim that people are cheerful or not 
irrespective of their philosophical positions. Well, that won't wash. You 
lump people into one, particular emotional state, i.e. cheerful about 
everything. This simply goes against the evidence.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "alice wellintown" <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: Quote of the Day


>> Together, you have convinced me that my initial position would require 
>> fine
>> tuning. You brought to mind one of my ethics professors who is deeply
>> pessimistic, but quite cheerful about it.
>
> Most Philosophers and Ethics Professors who are also pessimists are
> just like the rest of us; cheerful or not irrespective of their
> philosophical positions. In Philosophy or Ethics, Pessimism is not an
> emotional response or even a disposition.
>


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