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Voltaire
"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers."Posted by Nader at January 7, 2007 02:58 PM
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Well, I think NONE of the above. Let's try NOT to judge at all!
Posted by: مشیـانـه* at January 12, 2007 02:25 AM
Dear Mashyane: I agree with you in general and I understand what you want to say. For example, if do not like to have a tattoo, it is wrong for me to judge a person with tattoo as being a bad person in general.
I am not very fond of this quote either but for another reason. I basically think that both a man's question and answer are equally important in evaluating what he thinks. Basically, instead of "judging" I would like to use the word "evaluate". As I mentioned, we usually consider prejudgement a wrong doing. Judging is what we all do naturally when we evaluate the action of others against some of our own accepted values and there is nothing wrong with it unless we try to impose the result of our judgment in form of punishment or force others to accept our own views and values. For example, if I find out that one's action is corrupt then I will judge him/her as to be untrustworthy. Yes, there is always a danger that some of those values that we evaluate (judge) other's action by them may be wrong and biased. In fact history is filled with all kinds of wrong doings due to these false judgments. People have massacred each other for judging based on a wrong interpretation of what is right and what is wrong. Having said that, it does not mean there is no wrong or right in nature when it comes to our humanity and relationships. Who defines the right and wrong is another big issue. Some believe it is God and some believe it is the society and for some it is the government.
I am not very fond of this quote either but for another reason. I basically think that both a man's question and answer are equally important in evaluating what he thinks. Basically, instead of "judging" I would like to use the word "evaluate". As I mentioned, we usually consider prejudgement a wrong doing. Judging is what we all do naturally when we evaluate the action of others against some of our own accepted values and there is nothing wrong with it unless we try to impose the result of our judgment in form of punishment or force others to accept our own views and values. For example, if I find out that one's action is corrupt then I will judge him/her as to be untrustworthy. Yes, there is always a danger that some of those values that we evaluate (judge) other's action by them may be wrong and biased. In fact history is filled with all kinds of wrong doings due to these false judgments. People have massacred each other for judging based on a wrong interpretation of what is right and what is wrong. Having said that, it does not mean there is no wrong or right in nature when it comes to our humanity and relationships. Who defines the right and wrong is another big issue. Some believe it is God and some believe it is the society and for some it is the government.
Posted by: Nader at January 13, 2007 06:21 PM
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