Twigga wrote: My understanding of reductionist thinking is that it takes things apart; the cogs of the bike, the chain off the cogs, the pedals off the cranks, until, yes, you are right, they do become essentially meaningless. On the way you discover aspect that allow you to explain phenomena that are very useful (the material the cogs are made of is equally hard as the material the chain is made of, so they are able to wear each other down. This process of entropy means that bicycles require maintainance, and cannot function indefinitely) that is hard to see if you are looking at the big scale of the whole bicycle.
But reductionist thinking isn't the only kind of thinking in scientific thinking. There is also systems thinking. Systems thinking looks at the causal mechanisms between feet on pedals pushing wheels, and wind blowing on exposed skin on your face leading to an invigorating release of endorphins... Behold! A cyclist is born! *chorus of angels*
Sorry... I might have got a bit carried away there. I am not a very good enlightenment thinker! But there is space for faith and wonder, I think.
P.S. to OB1 - The nice thing about not knowing what I believe myself is that I don't much mind whether you agree or disagree with me, I rarely agree with myself one day to another so I don't see why I should be pressing you to! I am just enjoying exploring ideas with you.
This was a cool post, especially the angels lol. I dont really have anything in particular to add at this point, so i havent, but it just occurred to me that maybe i can be more useful by requesting information rather than trying to contribute it so... why don you ahem enlighten me? Lol
Youve mentioned slavery and womens rights already, could you maybe share some of the particular themes or details of Enlightenment thinking that especially inspire you? And if Enlightenment can be considered a Faith, what would you say its basic tenents are?
I wont actually know if you get anything wrong, either, so dont worry about that lol.
