A Touchtone Proposition By William H. Halverson

544 Words2 Pages

In regards to truly understanding ideas that bombard our lives, a touchstone proposition is essential. Literally speaking, a touchstone is a piece of quartz that can detect fools gold from authentic gold. However, author Graham Cole mentions it to be as, “a gatekeeper to the house of knowledge- or so it is hoped” (Cole, 4). William H. Halverson states that, “at the heart of every view, a proposition lies at the heart of them” (Cole, 3). He goes on to deem this type of proposition as a touchstone proposition. Overall, Cole speaks of four views in particular and points out their true touchstone propositions to give readers more insight. The first view Cole mentions is Naturalistic. The Naturalistic view states that no god or gods exist and that actually, matter is the only thing that does exist. In contradiction to that view, there is Non-Naturalistic. Non-Naturalistic claims that a god or gods do exist …show more content…

This is actually critically important. Some touchstone propositions or frame of references could actually do more harm than good. Meaning that if the touchstone proposition a person could claim is at the center of a certain belief is, in fact, incorrect or not logical, confusion rather than understanding is all that particular person will be left with. In Cole’s work he gives the story example of a man who was convinced he was actually a dead man. The supposed dead mans’ family persuaded him to see a therapist. This therapist assigned him many medical books and documents trying to prove one fact: dead men don’t bleed. After weeks the therapist succeeded ad the “dead man” proclaimed that if he was dead, he could not bleed. Shortly after this revelation, the therapist pricked the man, and as he started to bleed, he cried out “good lord, dead men do bleed!” (4). Bringing that story up to reaffirm that having the wrong proposition can just deceive people from the

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