I said, responding to Doug:
>>If the given intellectual's
>>studies have not led hir to the kinds of conclusions that can be formulated
>>as "advice", then clearly offering advice would be inappropriate. The
>>best that the intellectual can do is present the results of hir findings
>>and hope that others will continue the studies, use the existing results
>>in some way they find helpful, etc.
and then Colin replied:
> But this is hopessly naive, ideas are real and have real effects, one can't
> simply say that one is not suggesting. To say X is true, is to say that
> people should not believe or act on X.
Where did I say that ideas were not real and didn't have real effects?
If you want to engage with something that was said, please go through
the trouble of understanding the context in which it was said, otherwise
it's a waste of time.
-m
>>If the given intellectual's
>>studies have not led hir to the kinds of conclusions that can be formulated
>>as "advice", then clearly offering advice would be inappropriate. The
>>best that the intellectual can do is present the results of hir findings
>>and hope that others will continue the studies, use the existing results
>>in some way they find helpful, etc.
and then Colin replied:
> But this is hopessly naive, ideas are real and have real effects, one can't
> simply say that one is not suggesting. To say X is true, is to say that
> people should not believe or act on X.
Where did I say that ideas were not real and didn't have real effects?
If you want to engage with something that was said, please go through
the trouble of understanding the context in which it was said, otherwise
it's a waste of time.
-m