THE CADRE, TUES“ Nov. 20, 1973 Page 3 
     
    
   
   
    
     e {Kc- mpus 
     
     K oncern 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     by ioel, "5"59“ 
     
    
   
   
    
     photo by CROMBIE 
     
    
   
   
    
     BRAVO RUBINOFF 
     
    
   
   
    
     Rubinoff was the toast of 
     
     the philosophers of UPEI: 
     
     he came, he spoke, he con- 
     
    

    
     quered! And not only philo- 
     
     sophers were excited with 
     
     him, physics and psycholo— 
     
     gy professors also receiv- 
     
     ed him with warm enthusia- 
     
    
   
   
    
     sm. Just who is this Rubi-' 
     
    
   
   
    
     noff and whence did he co- 
     
     me? 
     
    

    
     Lionel Rubinoff hails fr- 
     
     om Toronto: he has taught 
     
     at the universities of To- 
     
     ronto, York and Trent. 
     
     Along with his philosophi- 
     
     cal groundings he also ex- 
     
     cells as an actor, as an 
     
     amateur classicist and as 
     
     an historian. SUch a wide 
     
     range of knowledge and ab- 
     
     ility contributes a great 
     
     deal to his overall deli- 
     
     verence as a scholar and 
     
     public speaker. ~ 
     
    

    
     On wednesday, Nov. 14, in 
     
     the Faculty Lounge, Rubin- 
     
     off began his philosophic- 
     
     al thrust on P.E.I. He 
     
     brought news of the rebir- 
     
     th and the re-entry of me- 
     
     taphysics into the”main- 
     
     stream of the discipline 
     
     known\as philosophy! Since 
     
     the turn of the nineteenth 
     
     century philosophy and 
     
     philosophers have gone .L 
     
     through a crisis: "What is 
     
     philosophy, what could one 
     
     really make assertions ab- 
     
     out, what did the use of 
     
     techne as the mode of the 
     
     western forces of produc- 
     
     tion mean as far as the 
     
     relevancy of philosophy to 
     
     the technical world?" 
     
    

    
     Rubinoff proclaimed the 
     
     new message of philosophy 
     
     in an attempt to answer & 
     
     put an end to the afore-‘ 
     
     said questions and crisis. 
     
     "Without metaphysics we 
     
     are barbarians." he cried° 
     
     pBut just what.is metaphy— 
     
     sics and its exact role? 
     
     According to Rubinoff it 
     
     is the study of socities' 
     
     pre-suppositions from whif 
     
    

    
     ,ch that society derives 
     
     its coherent meanings whi- 
     
     ch in turn describe the 
     
     goals of that society. It 
     
     is the method by which man 
     
     views himself in his con- 
     
    
   
   
    
     as. 
     
    
   
   
    
     dition and can, if desired, 
     
     be the method by which man 
     
     lifts himself out of that 
     
     condition in a transcend- 
     
    
   
   
    
     dental moment to move on 
     
     to new meanings and goals° 
     
    

    
     (A pre-supposition is an 
     
     opinion, belief or perspe- 
     
     ctive by which the person/ 
     
     society is guiding his/her 
     
     existance.) 
     
    

    
     This view of metaphysics 
     
     is taken, according to 
     
     Lionel Rubinoff, from the 
     
     philosopher (British) R.G 
     
     Collingwood, and himself! 
     
     It is a view, he noted, 
     
     that does not offend the 
     
     scientific mindo In fact 
     
     it is the method alas by 
     
     which even the scientist 
     
     can be more "scientific" 
     
     in approaching the univer- 
     
     se. The scientist, by ana- 
     
     lysing his/her pre-suppos- 
     
     itions can actually deter- 
     
     mine conclusions that will 
     
     be reached in a scientific 
     
     endeavour. i.e. if a scie- 
     
     ntist views or pre-suppos- 
     
     es the mind to be the re- 
     
     sultant of a mechanistic, 
     
     material universe, he will 
     
     in turn find that the bra- 
     
     in is a physico — chemical 
     
     organ which holds and pro- 
     
     duces "mind", the conclu- 
     
     sion is essentially con- 
     
     tained in the pre-supposi— 
     
     tion. The role of metaphy- 
     
     sics then, is to lay bare 
     
     these types of pre-suppos- 
     
     itions in order that they 
     
     may be analyzes and possi— 
     
     bly transcended. 
     
    

    
     Following wednesday even- 
     
     ing's introductory lecture 
     
     came Thursday afternoon's 
     
     discourse on the problem 
     
     of the Myth of the Devilo 
     
     Here Rubinoff developed, 
     
     the idea that the phenome- 
     
     non of evil, exemplified 
     
     in man's myth of the devil 
     
     is a condition of every 
     
     man(evil being compulsion, 
     
     or acting as if one is co- 
     
     ntrolled or possessed by 
     
     an external force: namely 
     
     onéTs jab, one‘s"gdd or 
     
     idol) that must be accept— 
     
     ed in the struggle of hum- 
     
     anizing the world. It must 
     
    
   
   
    
     also be surpassed in this 
     
     acceptance in a Sartrian 
     
     mode of accepting the res- 
     
     ponsibility of this condi— 
     
     tion: transcending it to 
     
     the realization that man 
     
     is in fact responsible for 
     
     the world as it is, and 
     
     this foisting of responsi- 
     
     bility onto an external v 
     
     compuI51on is in "bad-fai-' 
     
     th" or insincerity result- 
     
     ing in a counterfiet dimr 
     
     ension. (As when Eichman 
     
     proclaims at his trial th- 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘ at he was following out- 
     
    
   
   
    
     side orders thereby excus- 
     
     ing him of responsibility 
     
    
   
   
    
     of the extermination of 
     
     the Jews, all conscience 
     
     is lost in this "demonic 
     
     counterfiet dimension". 
     
    

    
     Thus the devil, is in fa- 
     
     ct the foisting of human 
     
     responsibility onto an ou- 
     
     tside or non-human element 
     
     such as one's job, the de- 
     
      etCooooo 
     
    

    
     In explaining this posi- 
     
     tion, Rubinoff made many 
     
     references to Greek drama 
     
     in which the problem of 
     
     evil is dramatized as a 
     
     myth of the human ability 
     
     to transfer or escape res- 
     
     ponsibility or conscience. 
     
    

    
     Unfortunately I was unab- 
     
     le to attend his Thur. ev- 
     
     ening lecture concerning 
     
    

    
     'the problem of man in a 
     
     society which appears to 
     
     have little or no conscie- 
     
     nce. However, I did manage 
     
     to talk with Rubinoff in a 
     
     relatively informal way on 
     
     Fri. before he left for 
     
     home° Again the man appea- 
     
     red resourceful and dynam- 
     
     1c. 
     
    

    
     At this point vaould I- 
     
     like tOrthank Chuck Holmes 
     
     and the rest of the dept° 
     
     of philosophy for bringing 
     
     a man to this campus who 
     
     has the communicative abi---s 
     
     lities of articulating the 
     
     problems, and giving a se- 
     
     nse of direction to those 
     
     who heard and talked to 
     
     him. ‘