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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

At best, anyone who bought this for a second is nowhere near cynical enough.


11 posted on 01/20/2019 6:40:54 PM PST by thoughtomator (Nobody is coming to save the day)
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To: thoughtomator
At best, anyone who bought this for a second is nowhere near cynical skeptical enough.
The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing. Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
I agree with you - and Adam Smith - that skepticism (other than wrt Christ) is something to be cultivated.
But cynicism is actually different from skepticism - ironically, it contains the necessary implication of naiveté.

For if A be the opposite of B, you can be skeptical of both. But cynicism towards A necessarily implies naiveté towards B.

The core meaning of skepticism is doubt - but cynicism actually rejects doubt.


33 posted on 01/21/2019 11:21:16 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
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