[geeks] education systems around the world

[Phil Stracchino]

hike wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 4:33 PM, Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>wrote:
>> hike wrote:
>>> you have noted that people are not perfect.  that is the proof that you
>> are
>>> proposing a system of anarchy.
>>
>> BZZZZZZZZZZT!  TOTAL non-sequitur.
> 
> Not quite Phil.
> 
> Not even a partial non-sequitur.
> 
> Jonathan is making an assumption about "people" which he negates in his
> email.  Taken in the content of my questions, the imperfections "in people"
> is proof that his philosophy is impractical, if not impossible, to
> implement.  The logical conclusion is anarchy.  (Many there are other
> conclusions but, for the life of me, I don't see any other logical
> conclusions.)

Setting aside for the moment the question of whether your reasoning is
necessarily correct (which I don't believe it is), the proposition
"People are imperfect, therefore you are espousing anarchy" is about as
valid as "Cars break down, therefore you're espousing oil drilling in
Alaska."  It *is* a complete non-sequitur.  The precedent does not
follow from the antecedent in any way, without assuming an entire
structure of assertions and maxims that have neither been stipulated nor
agreed upon.

Now if you want to rephrase your statement along the lines of "I believe
that because people are not perfect, the kind of system you are
proposing would degenerate into anarchy" (which is more or less what I
*think* you meant), then I'd have no problem with that.  But your
proposition as originally stated just makes no sense.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.