I appreciate the lesson. I appears I posted one more paper for you to grade. Thanks, James Charles Ess <cmess@drury.edu> wrote: While I should be grading papers, etc., I can't resist pointing out some basic logical errors -
Recent jabs a Berniers-Lee in this forum reflects intolerance and does not advance the field.
At the time the comments remided me of a person sitting at a desk writing with disdain about Edison's invention of the light bulb and doing so in the light it provided.
The latter is questionable analogy - especially as its generalized consequence is that no critique is permitted of a technology / artifact, once that technology / artifact is visited on the world. So I can't encourage - while writing in a room still illuminated by incandescent bulbs (not my choice; my house has 'em) - my students to switch to flourescents and other forms of lighting, despite the fact that the incandescent bulb is a comparative energy hog? Hmm. The first paragraph risks another logical fallacy - affirming the consequent: If one is intolerant, one will criticize "founding fathers" (and personal heroes). Someone(s) have criticized f.f./p.h. Therefore, someone(s) are intolerant. The fallacy of affirming the consequent confuses a necessary condition (intolerance) for a sufficient condition (the only possible condition needed for an outcome - critique). This excludes the obvious: perhaps one is critical because there is something to criticize. To demonstrate intolerance as the sole source of critique, one would have to show said critique to rest only on intolerance - not, say, logic, evidence, argument, etc. A difficult trick, to be sure - good luck! cordially, - c. Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Information Ethics Fellow, 2006-07, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, UW-Milwaukee Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SOIS/cipr/ijire.html Co-chair, CATaC conferences Vice-President, Association of Internet Researchers Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.