copied from Myspace blog
If a person says they are flawed, it is absolute proof that they are flawed. If their assertion is correct, then they are flawed, as they say. On the other hand, if they were not flawed and they said they were, then either they are lying or do not have an accurate appraisal of themselves, which is to say that their character or judgment are flawed, which means they are flawed, which establishes a contradiction. Therefore, anyone who says they are flawed must indeed be telling the truth. Q.E.D.
On the other hand… Observation suggests that if a person says they are not flawed, they are either a) arrogant or b) ignorant of definite limitations in themselves, which shows, again, flaws of character or judgment, which demonstrates that the person is flawed.
Now, it seems reasonable to assert that an unflawed person would be able to gain anything they desired by their prowess at interacting with the world. But how many of us know anyone who has gotten everything they wanted in life, even in the best of circumstances? Cognitive science indeed suggests that consciousness and conscious thinking are tools we use when have flawed knowledge of the world and need to acquire more information. Consciousness and our dependence on it are, then, evidence of the flawednesss of human (or indeed animal) nature.
If the person who asserts they are flawed is flawed and the person who asserts they are not flawed is flawed, that leaves only the person who has made no assertion one way or the other. But without loss of generality, we can make the assumption that we have asked this person to tell us whether they are flawed or not. If they refuse to answer, they are being ornery which is a sure sign of some interpersonal flaw. If they say they don't know, then they are demonstrating a lack of self knowledge which is a flaw. Therefore, the person who won't state whether they are flawed or not is also flawed.
As all three classes of people form an exhaustive set of all humanity and these three classes have been shown to be flawed, we may conclude that human nature and all humans are indeed flawed. (Blame God or Mom or the government.)
Well, now that we've settled that, we can all get back to work.
Return to Blog Index.