Maxim: Juxtaposition leads to insight.

[novapsyche]

In July, I read an editorial by Ellen Goodman, called "Justices get personal in race ruling: Gap between O'Connor and Thomas is vast" (Ann Arbor News, 7/11/03). Near the beginning of the article, she said:

"As someone who makes a living telling people what she thinks, I am aware that opinion-mongering is a dicey business. Even the dictionary offers this slippery definition: 'a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.'"

Alfred North Whitehead, in his book Religion in the Making (published in the 1920s), had this to say about opinion:

"The word 'dogma' originally means an 'opinion,' and thence more especially a 'philosophical opinion.'" -- p. 124

"In the framing of dogmas it is only possible to use ideas which have received a distinct, well-recognized signification. Also, no idea is determinate in a vacuum: It has its being as one of a system of ideas. A dogma is the expression of fact as it appears within a certain sphere of thought. You cannot convey a dogma by merely translating the words; you must also understand the system of thought to which it is relevant." -- p. 125

"[T]he view that there are a few fundamental dogmas is arbitrary. Every true dogma which formulates with some adequacy the facts of a complex religious experience is fundamental for the individual in question and he disregards it at his peril. For formulation increases vividness of apprehension, and the peril is the loss of an aid in the difficult task of spiritual ascent." -- pp. 131-32

"Idolatry is the necessary product of static dogmas." -- p. 142

Comments

[dukejansen.livejournal.com]

that last one is great. so succinct and astute...