Tag: short-and-straight

Pragmatists in America: What an irony!

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Baseball may be popular in America, but the sport hasn’t really taken hold in many other countries. Its philosophical equivalent is pragmatism. – David Edmonds, of Philosophy Bites.

According to the Pragmatists, a statement is meaningless if it’s not empirically viable (aka if it can’t be tested). Thus, “There is a god” is a meaningless statement.

The pragmatists movement began in America in the late 19th century. It’s such an irony that the birthplace of this movement is in America, given the prevalence of religiosity there.

Socrates was a damn good journalist…

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

…except that he never took written notes.

A form of conversation, which Socrates owns copyright for, is called the Socratic method. To use the method one must aim to have a conversation with no holds barred and find things out by merely talking. Such conversations often end up being between two individuals each defending their positions. But the eventual aim ought to be to collaboratively learn something new about the world, and, if possible, come to a commonly agreed conclusion.

As a journalist in training, I was taught to interview scientists with just this aim (no one mentioned Socrates though). Ask questions, lots of them, but with an aim to arrive at a conclusion together. No other form of inquiry will help you learn as much as this form would, and it may even help you find a good story.