I was a philosophy major in college. (Actually, I got a double major: philosophy and creative writing, with a minor in business law.) When I graduated my father asked me what I was now qualified to do. “Argue eloquently in bars,” I told him. And I have.
But, in fact, philosophy is a wonderful tool to tackle almost anything. What I learned from my readings was that clear thinking comes down to three things.
First, what are your premises? Can you identify them?
Second, how reasonable are they? Is there evidence? How trustworthy is it?
Third, can you get from those premises to a justifiable conclusion? Does the chain of your reasoning follow the rules of logic?
In this, the Age of Misinformation, we see many people whose premises are not just made up but strongly contradicted by the data. Once the false problem is set up they offer a ludicrous solution.
An example.
Something very like this happened in Arkansas, which in 2023 adopted Act 372. The act did several things.
The court wrote, “If the General Assembly’s purpose in passing Section 1 was to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores, the law will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights. The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.”
Moreover, the court found that parts of Arkansas law requiring any material that might be “harmful” to minors be shelved in a separate “adults only” area as “unconstitutionally overbroad.”
Kudos to a judge who follows both law and logic. At this writing, 30 states have similar bills seeking not only to criminalize books, but the people who provide access to them. Two of them are still lingering in the current Colorado legislative session.
The first, HB1158, is sponsored by a chapter head of Moms for Liberty (whose “liberty” again comes at the expense of yours). It makes the unsupported claim that library databases, like those offering the full text of magazine articles, are riddled with pornography so we need to eliminate all advertisements and external links. Advertisements — for insurance companies, clothing and bikes, for instance — is how magazines stay in business. External links would include an automotive website referred to by a Consumer Reports article on new cars. In other words, the database would have to purge the content necessary to their survival and eliminate related information you came to the database to find. Failure to eliminate ads and links would result in contract cancellation or penalties. Together, this anti-business legislation makes the whole point of the database — efficient research by topic — almost worthless. It also further impoverishes already strapped school libraries.
The second bill, HB1231, is now postponed indefinitely. But it aimed to make the first offense of checking out a book with any sexual content to a minor punishable by a $10,000 fine. The second offense would get you up to two years in jail.
As a librarian, I predict a rising tide of flat out falsity in our society: solutions to problems we don’t have in order to advance the power of people we can’t trust.
Some days it’s hard to be philosophical.
[This column appeared in the Sopris Sun on March 19, 2025.]
But, in fact, philosophy is a wonderful tool to tackle almost anything. What I learned from my readings was that clear thinking comes down to three things.
First, what are your premises? Can you identify them?
Second, how reasonable are they? Is there evidence? How trustworthy is it?
Third, can you get from those premises to a justifiable conclusion? Does the chain of your reasoning follow the rules of logic?
In this, the Age of Misinformation, we see many people whose premises are not just made up but strongly contradicted by the data. Once the false problem is set up they offer a ludicrous solution.
An example.
- Premise: “There is a burgeoning public health crisis of sexual crime and misbehavior!”
- Evidence: In fact, like violent crimes generally, sexual crimes, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases have been falling sharply in the U.S. for decades.
- Conclusion: “We need new legislation to prevent children from reading about sex.”
Something very like this happened in Arkansas, which in 2023 adopted Act 372. The act did several things.
- It declared that books, magazines and movies may be “harmful to minors.” This was apparently determined by anyone — not just an Arkansas resident — who claimed that a book was “inappropriate” or “obscene.” Neither term was defined.
- It required the removal or relocation of such content into “adult only” sections.
- It made the distribution of such materials to someone under the age of 18 — as in a library or bookstore — a criminal offense.
- The penalty for the crime was up to a year in prison.
The court wrote, “If the General Assembly’s purpose in passing Section 1 was to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores, the law will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights. The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.”
Moreover, the court found that parts of Arkansas law requiring any material that might be “harmful” to minors be shelved in a separate “adults only” area as “unconstitutionally overbroad.”
Kudos to a judge who follows both law and logic. At this writing, 30 states have similar bills seeking not only to criminalize books, but the people who provide access to them. Two of them are still lingering in the current Colorado legislative session.
The first, HB1158, is sponsored by a chapter head of Moms for Liberty (whose “liberty” again comes at the expense of yours). It makes the unsupported claim that library databases, like those offering the full text of magazine articles, are riddled with pornography so we need to eliminate all advertisements and external links. Advertisements — for insurance companies, clothing and bikes, for instance — is how magazines stay in business. External links would include an automotive website referred to by a Consumer Reports article on new cars. In other words, the database would have to purge the content necessary to their survival and eliminate related information you came to the database to find. Failure to eliminate ads and links would result in contract cancellation or penalties. Together, this anti-business legislation makes the whole point of the database — efficient research by topic — almost worthless. It also further impoverishes already strapped school libraries.
The second bill, HB1231, is now postponed indefinitely. But it aimed to make the first offense of checking out a book with any sexual content to a minor punishable by a $10,000 fine. The second offense would get you up to two years in jail.
As a librarian, I predict a rising tide of flat out falsity in our society: solutions to problems we don’t have in order to advance the power of people we can’t trust.
Some days it’s hard to be philosophical.
[This column appeared in the Sopris Sun on March 19, 2025.]
Comments