Steven Dutch: "What we can call The Fundamental Fallacy of Modern Philosophy might be defined as the idea that it makes sense to study structure divorced from content. This is the idea that has given us businessmen who think they can "manage" without knowing anything about what they manage, critics who claim that only the technical excellence of a work of art matters, not its content, and sociologists of science like the one with whom I corresponded who think you can study the Velikovsky affair without regard to the scientific validity of Velikovsky's ideas."



I would like to add this this insight some thoughts about religious fundamentalism. You must have heard when a Muslim blows up a building with people inside that it is the fault of religious fundamentalism. That is we can blame the fact of someone being over religious, That is we don't blame their being religious but being too religious. How often do you hear the idea that content matters? Maybe it is not whether the guy was overly religious or not is the question. Perhaps it is the content of the book he is reading?

Surely Catholic nuns are also religious and maybe also too religious. Do you blame them also? Perhaps Muslims murdering innocent people is the fault of Catholic nuns who promote religious fervor?

On the other hand certainly American ideas of the 1960's of suggesting people get back to their roots had a predictable effect of getting Muslims back to their roots.

After this introduction I want to say
that in some way everyone is a fundamentalist. Everyone has a short list of basic principles that they operate under in their daily lives--and they stick to those principles. what matters is what those principles are.

The Ten Commandments? Thou shalt not lie, nor cheat, nor steal?