Big Think

Nick Montgomery on January 17, 2008, 6:14 AM

Dershowitz advocates 'first principles' without explaining what those principles. He claims he's not part of any 'school' but then we need to ask: where are his assumptions, beliefs, and knowledge coming from. The dangerous thing about saying you're starting from scratch is that you inevitably end up inheriting beliefs/norms/assumptions that are derived from one school of thought or another. Then, because 'first principles' permits you to pretend that you don't need to examine your own assumptions, you can pretend that you're being 'neutral' or 'objective' in your analysis, placing yourself above other people who are part of 'schools'

Nick Montgomery on January 17, 2008, 11:14 AM

Dershowitz advocates ‘first principles’ without explaining what those principles. He claims he’s not part of any ‘school’ but then we need to ask: where are his assumptions, beliefs, and knowledge coming from. The dangerous thing about saying you’re starting from scratch is that you inevitably end up inheriting beliefs/norms/assumptions that are derived from one school of thought or another. Then, because ‘first principles’ permits you to pretend that you don’t need to examine your own assumptions, you can pretend that you’re being ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’ in your analysis, placing yourself above other people who are part of ‘schools’

Robert Hardy on January 19, 2008, 1:31 AM

i agree with you montgomery, but i feel that it is a fault with the site, and not necessarily with the speaker. while i don't know if i would agree with what he has to say, the video has been edited too much for us to know his true opinion.

Robert Hardy on January 19, 2008, 6:31 AM

i agree with you montgomery, but i feel that it is a fault with the site, and not necessarily with the speaker. while i don’t know if i would agree with what he has to say, the video has been edited too much for us to know his true opinion.