Posted by zeugma on November 1, 2005, at 23:01:33
alexandra,
you know my love of paradox. i have extracted one from the current u.s. legal situation, or so i think.
on this matter i defer to an eminist U.S. jurist. you can see her credentials.
the paradox is that of an investigation which, if successful, will undermine national security. and yet the charge brought against the defendant in the case (Libby) is that of perjury and obstruction of justice in the conduct of an investigation into an alleged breach of national security, which is being pursued because the breach endangers national security.
I congratulate our Administration in confronting us with a situation that will make Philosophy 101 intersting again.
would dennett say that we are kludged together and so tolerate logical fuzziness? but is not this a matter that is difficult to kludge?
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2005/10/devil-in-details-cia-leak-case.php
this jurist is quite well credentialed and knows how the executive branch operates, as you can see by her resume.
now if this were fictional it would find its way into my favorite book, "Pardoxes from A to Z" (I took my name from Zeno's paradox, and indeed feel like a tortoise trying to catch Achilles in figuring all this out).
is dennett right? as kludges can we hold ourselves together?
or am i being paranoid? but if so i have excellent references.
or if it is a mere paradox, and the case is a ruckus over nothing, it nonetheless is interesting to consider a fictional government faced with such a dilemma.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:574371
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20051022/msgs/574371.html