Chapter 2 – “Presuppositionalism and Negative Agnosticism”
Series 102: a first question of feasibility
Can questions of this kind even ever reach true answers?; three (or four) kinds of denials; one denial for charity’s sake; one denial purely for self-protection (maybe while continuing to try to interfere in such discussions); neither are bars to continuing; one attempt of actual denial; based on an inference?; then questions on such topics can reach true answers!–instant self-defeat; the proposer has made a tacit exception in favor of the bit of philosophical truth he is advocating at the moment; perhaps this is all that can be discovered?; no particularly good reason to suppose so, in principle; we are not presented with a multitude of utterly exclusive view of reality; subtly complex and emotional issues can easily explain historical diversity; some traditions would add supernatural enemies with interest in keeping humanity conflicted–no reason to deny this yet, might or might not be true; feeling that there must be no way to answer questions, only adds one more intuition to the mix for no gain–cannot settle the matter (feelings obviously conflict about possibility of answers!); at least one definite characteristic of reality may be discovered; no clear grounds for concluding that the only definite characteristic of reality is its inability to otherwise be discovered; difference between negative agnostic (situation is hopeless) and positive agnostic (could be a way forward but unseen by this person).