Family life
Sir,—lt appears Vernon Wilkinson (July 16) and D. E. Oakley (July 11) have not understood the terms logical validity, credibility and obfuscation; these terms being collectively and summarily dismissed as “gobbledegook.” Not understanding the concept of logical validity often results in expressed hostility or bewilderment towards rational argument. Under those conditions any rational criticism is typically dismissed as “gobbledegook,” "destructive,” “casuistry,” “quibbles” and So on. Pejorative labelling simply substitutes for rational rebuttal. Returning to important matters, is Mr Wilkinson (July 12) sure .that family life will benefit from his “global ethic” based on “natural law”? Since it is impossible for anyone or anything to break natural law (laws of nature), an ethic based on it could be resting on a fundamental confusion between natural and normative law. What examples of natural law, impossible to break, underpin his ethic, or how does physics underpin ethics? — Yours, etc., DAVID SHANKS. July 17, 1986.
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Press, 21 July 1986, Page 20
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153Family life Press, 21 July 1986, Page 20
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