Pleading a case begs a question. Unamuno, Life 5.13
Where
do we start? This is the question that matters, and there is no
universal answer.
Lo
que hay es que el hombre, prisionero de la lógica, sin la cual no
piensa, ha querido siempre ponerla al servicio de sus anhelos, y
sobre todo del fundamental anhelo. Se quiso tener siempre a la
lógica, y más en la Edad Media, al servicio de la teología y la
jurisprudencia, que partían ambas de lo establecido por la
autoridad. La lógica no se propuso hasta muy tarde el problema del
conocimiento, el de la validez de ella misma, el examen de los
fundamentos metalógicos.
«La
teología occidental —escribe Stanley— es esencialmente lógica
en su forma y se basa en la ley; la oriental es retórica en la forma
y se basa en la filosofía. El teólogo latino sucedió al abogado
romano; el teólogo oriental al sofista griego».
Y
todas las elucubraciones pretendidas racionales o lógicas en apoyo
de nuestra hambre de inmortalidad, no son sino abogacía y
sofistería.
Lo
propio y característico de la abogacía, en efecto, es poner la
lógica al servicio de una tesis que hay que defender, mientras el
método, rigurosamente científico, parte de los hechos, de los datos
que la realidad nos ofrece para llegar o no llegar a conclusión. Lo
importante es plantear bien el problema, y de aquí que el progreso
consiste, no pocas veces, en deshacer lo hecho. La abogacía supone
siempre una petición de principio, y sus argumentos todos son ad
probandum. Y la teología supuesta racional no es sino
abogacía.
As
prisoners of logic, without which we cannot think, we humans have
always wanted to put her at the service of our desires—above
all, of our most fundamental desire. Thus already in the Middle Ages
we wanted logic always to serve theology and jurisprudence, which
take their basis in the power of authority. Logic arrived only late
at the problem of knowledge—of
her own validity, which must be assessed from positions beyond
herself, i.e. from metalogical premises.
"Western
theology," Stanley writes (†),
"is essentially logical in its form, and is based in the law.
Oriental theology is rhetorical in its form, and is based in
philosophy. The Latin theologian succeeds to the work of the Roman
lawyer; the Oriental theologian is heir to the Greek sophist."
And
all the seemingly rational or logical machinations in support of our
hunger for immortality are just legal pleading, and rhetorical
sophistry.
The
proper and characteristic work of lawyers is, in effect, using logic
to defend a thesis. Legal method, rigorously scientific, takes
practitioners from the facts, the information reality offers us, to
arrive or fail to arrive at a conclusion. The crucial thing is to
found your problem well, and thus legal progress rather often
consists in unmaking facts. Begging the question is always part of
pleading a case, which involves arguments vulnerable to proof.
Rational theology cannot claim more power than this.
---
(†)
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881) was born into a family of Anglican
churchmen, and carried that tradition to full fruition, becoming the
leading liberal theologian in Great Britain, as well as a Regius
professor of church history at Oxford and the dean of Westminster
Abbey. His career included trips abroad to churches in Sinai,
Palestine, and Russia, inspiring lectures eventually published in the
volume Unamuno quotes: Lectures on the History of the Eastern
Church (orig. 1861).