Public Atonement Time
I did a rather bad thing today. I got into an argument with a non-philosophy major in my Philosophy and Society recitation. There's a strange distinction to be made here; if you are a medical student listening to someone trying to tell you how they got the flu because they had a misbalance of the four bodily humors (damn that black bile...), you are allowed to correct them if you know otherwise, say "No, you contracted a virus, friend." The same rule, one would think, should apply to other areas. In particular, I am quite confident in my knowledge that an action's being "normal" is not a sufficient condition for it being "right." It should be okay to explain this position to others who do not know it.
But it's not excusable that I take that argument to the level of sparring. I took advantage of being louder and more robust than this girl, and in essence asserted dominance with physical posture where rhetoric alone should have sufficed. She became uncomfortable and angry, a sort of cornered-animal mentality, reduced to grumbling replies and averted glances. I'll probably be "that philosophy bitch" to her for the rest of the semester; that doesn't concern me too much, but the thought that I should be above this does.
There's something good to be taken from the general style of Socrates's dialogues. He could run circles around other Athenians with his reasoning, but I've never found any out-of-line dehumanizing or taunting tones in his words. The point is not to afront your opponent and make them back down out of fright. The point is to be old, pot-bellied, pig-nosed, and most of all polite, so that it's the argument that gets heard, not you.
I did not win that debate today. My reasoning was more sound, it's true, but she didn't hear any of that. She only heard my tone, and because of that she will not have learned anything from me. The point of discourse is supposed to be education; I must learn to lower my voice.
This hurts me especially because John, my dearest John, would not have done this. If I could learn even an iota of the humility I write in him, I would be a much better person.
But it's not excusable that I take that argument to the level of sparring. I took advantage of being louder and more robust than this girl, and in essence asserted dominance with physical posture where rhetoric alone should have sufficed. She became uncomfortable and angry, a sort of cornered-animal mentality, reduced to grumbling replies and averted glances. I'll probably be "that philosophy bitch" to her for the rest of the semester; that doesn't concern me too much, but the thought that I should be above this does.
There's something good to be taken from the general style of Socrates's dialogues. He could run circles around other Athenians with his reasoning, but I've never found any out-of-line dehumanizing or taunting tones in his words. The point is not to afront your opponent and make them back down out of fright. The point is to be old, pot-bellied, pig-nosed, and most of all polite, so that it's the argument that gets heard, not you.
I did not win that debate today. My reasoning was more sound, it's true, but she didn't hear any of that. She only heard my tone, and because of that she will not have learned anything from me. The point of discourse is supposed to be education; I must learn to lower my voice.
This hurts me especially because John, my dearest John, would not have done this. If I could learn even an iota of the humility I write in him, I would be a much better person.