Bulverism

“Bulverism tries to show that the other man has causes and not reasons and that we have reasons and not causes” - C.S. Lewis

While reading this passage I can honestly say that I didn’t know what Lewis was talking about until I hit the line above. It simplified the concept down for me to realize that one man thinks that he has a valid argument and that that same man thinks that another man does not have a valid argument. It’s kind of scary to think that so much of our thinking is simply based on contradictory thoughts. I never would have thought that I formed an opinion based on only arguments that I agree with because they oppose other people before reading this excerpt. Now that I look at it there are many things in my life that I am sure I agree with because there are people who I do not want to be grouped with on the other side of the argument. Lewis is really pointing out how human it is for us to think that we are always right. In just the first two days of class the theme of humility has already come up in both discussions. After reading and discussing these passages I really realize that humility is a major player in helping us to become better people. For example, in this case, we need to accept that there are people out there who are highly educated and that are knowledgeable on certain topics than we are. In these cases we would do well to listen to these people and base our worldviews on the wisdom these people have to offer instead of creating arguments that only exist to oppose other people.

Through this class I kept thinking about fighting and conflict because a lot of Bulverism is based on opposition. Prof. P. Ribeiro said “it’s better to fight for truth than to fight for victory.” This really stuck with me because I think in all aspects of life, sports, religion, education and so much more we forget what we are fighting for. These concepts reminds me of when children will start fighting over a toy and get so worked up and start yelling at each other that by the time their mother gets there to resolve the problem the children have forgotten what they were fighting about in the first place. What is the point of fighting for something just so that we can say we are right? You need to have a reason or a drive behind your argument and what better reason is there than to search for truth. Lewis points out a lot of flaws in humanity in this article, but I don’t think that it is to make us feel like we are not being the best we can be I think he points these things out so that our best can continue becoming better. There’s no reason to base our thoughts on opposing other people and once Lewis has pointed that out and people have read about it then I think they will start to think about why they believe what they do and maybe we can have a more profound thinking society.