re: #18 CuriousLurker

We can cherry-pick examples of awful things from numerous traditions until the cows come home, but that won’t nullify the benefits of the good ones. At least for me it won’t, therefore such an exercise would seem like a rather large investment of time for little return.

IMO, taditions can and do act as safeguards, but only to the extent that people are willing to accept and adhere to them. They can’t prevent irrationality or injustice any more than a parent’s warning to drive carefully can prevent a teenaged child from drag racing, or a law against against murder prevent someone from killing. People will do what they’re going to do.

I will have to disagree, in part. Traditions can and do act as safeguard, but not “only to the extent that people are willing to accept and adhere to them” but only to the extent that they are rational and just and promote rationality and justice themselves. If traditions do not have these qualities, adhering to them will not produce justice and rationality, and not adhering to them is what is called for those interested in rationality and justice.

The same is true for parents: Of course they can guard and teach and protect. But they can also be incredibly abusive because of their position of power. And when they become abusive, their authority must be challenged, not defered to.

In the words of Immanuel Kant:

Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is the incapacity to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. Such tutelage is self-imposed if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another.