Friday, March 29, 2019

Vicious Regress practical example


In contrast to the view expressed in the satirical graphic below, one could hold to a view similar to me that political systems (and therefore within all relevant political parties) by nature, contain politicized, corruption in a fallen world. This includes unethical views and actions and at times illegal actions. 

I will grant that dealing with illegal corruption takes priority and when that is not found by authorities, the default political priority for voters, and therefore political parties, is policy. In other words, policy is more important than personal attacks and ethical fault finding in the political game, by one party against another.

In the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Simon Blackburn discusses ‘infinite regress’ and mentions that this occurs in a vicious way whenever a problem tries to solve itself and yet remains with the same problem it had previously. Blackburn (1996: 324) A vicious regress is an infinite regress that does not solve its own problem, while a benign regress is an infinite regress that does not fail to solve its own problem. Blackburn (1996: 324). Blackburn writes that there is frequently room for debate on what is a vicious regress or benign regress. Blackburn (1996: 324).

Investigators investigate investigators to infinitude. So, each investigator requires an investigator. The first person in this satirical example, investigated (President Trump) could also (besides his opponents) require an investigation of the investigators, further indicating this infinite, vicious regress.

BLACKBURN, S. (1996) ‘Regress’, in Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
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