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Believe It Or Not • Reading The Signs • Neither Idle Nor Anxious • Time After Time • Free Illusions? • Unjust Causes? • Cold Compassion? • Full-of-Mindness • Let’s Rock

Believe It Or Not

Dear Editor: In Issue 142, Benedict O’Connell discusses the idea that every belief or line of reasoning must rely on some assumption. He suggests that the problem with finding foundations for beliefs can be dealt with by using the approaches of Hegel and Heidegger. He says that neither of those philosophers regarded consciousness and reality as separate, and thinks this means that we can overcome the difficulty in understanding reality. I think we can use a much clearer argument against the view that all philosophical beliefs and arguments must rely on some assumption. This alternative is that certain foundational things must be true simply because of their meaning.

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