If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.It appears, and undoubtedly for good reason, that I have devoted much of my recent time to blogging about not blogging. Very existential, but also due to two powerful emotions that assail me whenever I attempt to put my thoughts to paper. In order to write about a topic it is often necessary to take a strong editorial tone. This tone impresses onto the reader not only a sense of confidence but also of wit and identity. Some of the best writers, of both journalism and fiction, are known more for how they say a thing then the words and phrases they actually say. This editorial tone comes not just from experience but also from a basic confidence in your own writings. When you are confident in your arguments and familiar with likely rebuttals your authorial voice is stronger presenting your readers with a more authoritative mental image. Common sense intuitions agree that you are more likely to believe a man confident of his words then one who doubts what he’s saying.-- Francis Bacon
In the past few days and weeks my mind has been occupied with the ideas of libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism. Both of which I currently reject. What has kept me from writing out loud? Well of course I hold each post to a certain standard but the reputation that libertarianism has in the blogosphere puts additional pressure on my editorial zeal. Bryan Caplan, pundit for the econlog blog, once wrote, “...a sure-fire cure for loneliness is to attack Austrian economics...once you argue with the Austrians, you'll never be ignored again!” It is this rather infamous reputation of the libertarian tradition that makes me extremely cautious, no doubt overcautious, as to me blogging.
Doubt. I never understood those who write with the zeal of the prophets, loudly proclaiming the absolute truth of their position. While you’ll find this style most commonly practiced in the fields of religion and political philosophy there are those in every field of study that adopt this editorial voice to argue their position. My inner optimist tells me that these people are of noble intent who honestly believe they’ve stumbled upon the truth. However my outer pessimist has a different theory. He hypothesizes that there are two approaches when dealing with doubt, the neurotic approach by which you are so self-conscious of you ideas you may fail to come to a determination. The other approach is that of the preacher, who acts almost with faith that what he believes is the inalienable truth all the while acting as if no doubt existed. Now obviously there is room between these extremes but you the point is made.
Doubt is universal. Even the greatest thinkers in the realm of epistemology accept doubt as an inescapable aspect of knowledge. Doubt will always exist so long as omniscience is beyond our reach. All of our decisions and beliefs are based on probabilities and incomplete evidence so there is always doubt. Doubt is one thing that makes me reticent to blog about libertarianism. Doubt is ubiquitous, there is doubt concerning other subjects of mine. So what makes my doubt here different? My doubt is deeper and more substantive here then it has been in the past. The issues of moral philosophy and political philosophy intersect with concepts of justice, desert, the state, and so on. Moral philosophy however is an area of great doubts for me. While I have argued for and against these concepts (debate is education, even without actual belief) my conclusions are incomplete.
So for the foreseeable future libertarianism will not be the subject of my blog posts. Until I can garner more knowledge and experience I have great trepidation about my ability to fully defend premises and conclusions. This is by no means a declaration of defeat or incompetence but rather me thinking out loud about my own doubts. These doubts grow sharper the more my lack of knowledge comes into focus. They say beware of those who too openly discuss their modesty, but I feel strongly that this universal sense of doubt I possess is a key to my search for truth. Another reason I am writing this is to further expound on my lack of blogging. I don’t like to blog on something until I am confident in my arguments to the best of my limited intelligence. Now obviously I won’t always meet this goal, but I can try.
So until next time don’t forget to doubt.
