Make Sure You Write This Down
A Dialogue From 2013, by Lucas J. Mather
Student: “But then, who are you to judge?”
Prof [um, that would be me in this scenario]: “By asking who I am, do you mean, what is my name? You already forgot?”
Student: “No, I mean … who are you to judge. You know.”
Me: “Who am I. I’m Lucas Mather.” [Sympathetic, gently now — after all, I forget things too, you know]. “My name is Lucas Mather.”
Student: “No … I mean … [laughing now] … “
[Silence. Everyone’s face says “oh s–t.”]
Me — rescuing: “Perhaps you used the wrong interrogative. You know the interrogatives, right: Who, What, How, When, Where, Why.“
Student [hopeful … somewhat relieved, yet still confused]: —-[silence—eek].
Me: “Maybe you meant to ask, ‘What are you to judge?’ In which case, I suppose I am to judge the thing we were just talking about.”
Student: [really confused look, now, but still smiling].
Me: “Or, perhaps you meant to ask, ‘Where are you to judge?’ In which case, it seems clear to me at least that the answer is, where-ever I happen to be at the moment of judgment. Right now I’m right here. Of course, “here” is one of those terms that changes meaning depending on where it is uttered. Like “I”, it means whoever says it. If I say it, it refers to me. If you say it, it refers to you. [Looking at students now, they are ingesting what I just said — their eyeballs move around like they are thinking something — brows are furrowing, fingers tap on chins … Some are wanting to check their phones]
Me: Continued: “Or, maybe you meant to ask, ‘Why are you to judge?’ I suppose the answer to that one might be to observe that the answer to that question itself requires a judgment, and in fact if I’m to answer it, I have to make a judgment. So perhaps the answer is, we can’t avoid it. We may as well do it well.”
Students: [nodding now, at this new found liberty].
Me: Standing on the desk now like Robin Williams, hair wild and crazy, sipping from by “water”, eyes crossed, lip up like Bill Murray in Caddyshack: “Or, perhaps” [sounding like Bill Murray now] “you meant, ‘When are you to judge?’ I suppose [I pause … turn my head and act like I’m hocking a lugey across the classroom — I can do the sound perfectly such that it sends atomic shock waves through the ranks] … “I suppose the answer is … [and my eyes are hurting now because I keep crossing them and uncrossing them] … RIGHT NOW you little varmit !!! I judge right NOW, that’s when !!!”
Students at this point are freaking out because I just screamed crazily — but they aren’t checking their godforsaken phones.
Me: [off the desk now, eyes normal, face a little flushed]: “Or maybe you’re asking, not Who, but ‘How are you to judge?’ In which case, that is the point of this whole class. How. Starting with basic epistemology that you should’ve been taught in 7th grade — because it’s really quite simple, really — to distinguish between Truth, Belief, and Evidence. Using Evidence: Reason/argument, Testimony, Perception/experience/memory — we do the best we can. That’s how.“
Students: awake, smiling (mostly):
Me: “But I suspect you weren’t really asking a question at all.”
[I let this one sit a few.]
Me: “I suspect your question what we call [and here, I adopt William F. Buckley’s grin, eye-twinkle, and strange, ineffable accent and cadence] … a rhetorical question — that … that … that is a statement in disguise. And what was the statement? The state … state … statement surely must’ve been something along the lines of, ‘No one is to judge.’ But, of … of … of course that sounds very different, doesn’t it? [my eyebrow is raised, I grin, twinkle the eye].
Student: “yes it does.”
Me: “Good. Make sure your write all this down.”
———————
Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2013
All Rights Reserved
Originally Published to Facebook Wed. 14 August 2013 at 12:05 am
Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. is the producer and host of The Republican Professor podcast.
Dr. Mather teaches Constitutional Law, American Founding and American Political Institutions at Azusa Pacific University in Lost Angeles County, California.
It used to be more widely acclaimed, but then he lost all this weight, and so he acclaims it much less widely, now.
Warmly,
Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.
The Republican Professor Podcast
The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack
https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/
YouTube channel: The Republican Professor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor
Twitter: @RepublicanProf
Instagram: @the_republican_professor
Be sure to subscribe ! Share it with a friend.
