5 March

Stephen Toulmin is one of my heroes. Now departed, his life work was the study of arguments, reasoning and how to make good decisions. Toulmin always got frustrated by people looking for either absolute answers to things, or no answer (‘it’s all just personal opinion’). The truth is always ‘maybe, it depends’. Toulmin introduced me to casuistry - case-based reasoning. Thus my interest in common law, the child of casuistry, which was invented in the Middle Ages and is sometimes used in ethics. I’ve posted before about how I think it’s the most sophisticated way to understand all things, because it rejects the distinction between the general and specific, singular and universal. Each ‘case’ is both specific, and general. Extended even further, it’s also why everyday conversations for me are the secret to everything. There is no truth outside those everyday contexts, there are no absolute principles, you have to look at each case separately. Patterns will appear between cases, but you can’t avoid needing to look at each case on its own merits too.