jkonrad

Brant: Oh, right. Somehow slipped my mind this all happened years ago. I would be referring to Coates' Questions for Diana and Diana's Takedown in response to Hsieh's Dialectical Dishonesty post, which was the last thing I read on the matter until now, and Campbell's posts on that and other related issues around the same time. There were more contributors of course, but those two seemed to carry most the weight. Hope I didn't come across as if I just love big conflicts. Hsieh's claims against Sciabarra just seemed so venomous... not how I would expect an advanced student of objectivism to react. But enough about that, I'm sure everyone's good and tired of the whole thing. galtgulch: Great list, thanks for taking the time. By quick count I've ingested 7 books listed and a smattering of the authors. I'll work on the rest. Michael: Yup. Another beautiful summer day here. Cold, pouring rain, and beautiful. This is your site, correct? Well done. One of the few places I've seen that covers lots of Objectivism without the drama.

I read AS a few years ago and it was my first time learning the basic concepts of philosophy. Reason, value, virtue. I'd just rejected Christianity after a period of introspection, but really hadn't gone much further than that. Learning about the nuts and bolts of how I as a human being worked was very exciting. I'd always been a "thinker", and having things click into place was a real special time for me. Read much of O'ism after that, found much that was good, and matured intellectually. Read all about the Kelley rift, and watched on HPO as various people and groups battled it out. Then the Sciabarra thing went down. I had a general idea about ARIs various ex-communications, and I found that whole slice of O'ism fascinating. Here were a bunch of smart people whose knowledge of philosophy dwarfed my own. My journey of learning and understanding had just begun, and already it was like a breath of fresh air. I loved ingesting the writing, being forced to really think my way through and integrate bigger and wider concepts. Good times. Yet. Some of these same people exhibited such passionate anger when it came to the various disagreements I was reading about. I've always been a thoughtful, emotionally mature person. I grasped as a young boy that anger was a warning that something was wrong not with the object of my anger, but that something was off with me. (Yeah, I know, right? I'd take credit for it but I don't even remember how I learned it.) So what was with these schisms, I wondered. Was it a pure, just anger? Did philosophical concepts get so deep, so profound, that to err would be utterly catastrophic, hence the banishments were justified? And... I faded away, lived life... flourished even. Until I wander into here, and just spent the last 12ish hours reading through the aftermath of the Hsieh Incident, and other conflicts. Seriously. See, I'd left before there had been much reaction, so it was fascinating just now to find out how it all played out. Philip Coates, wow! Those threads played out like a movie. There were skirmishes and attacks and odd lulls and deflections... and on the man trudged, step after plodding step. Now that's how you have A Discussion! I'd seen so many falter into nonsense so quickly on HPO, but nothing like that before. It actually came to a proper conclusion! Even if I thought you were incorrect in your analysis (I don't) it still would've been a great show. And Robert Campbell. Daaaang. Sharp. You're like Joe Friday on speed! Only the facts, never a wasted syllable, and more importantly, never a wasted emotion. Never heard anybody be so hardcore on people, while so... not-angry. Rational. No ad hominum, nothing for people to latch onto if they wanted to avoid the argument. Aaaaaaanywho. I'm wandering. I admire what those two and everyone else here does. Never have I seen a group so lacking in vitriol and bitternes... 'cuz it always seeps out if it's there, if you watch and read someone long enough, and it's always such a turn-off. I've been kicking around thoughts in the back of my head on the whole ex-communication thing for a long time. So I just have one post to make, then I'll wander in and out. But I won't disappear. No, no... you folks are ones to watch. A group of reasonable people. Didn't know such things existed. I don't know if they have a name for groups of reasonable people, but I'm going to declare right now that you're a ration. The first ration I've ever seen in the wild! Too bad I don't have my camera. 8)