Quantum Leaps Of Logic

Quantum Leaps Of Logic

Forum writer Mrs Carolyn Tan saw through the “quantum leap of logic” in Kishore Mahbubani’s article (The Virtues of Secularism, Straits Times 20 May), wherein the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore alleged that “there was a grand design by a religious group to venture into the secular domain and gobble up Aware,” just because the ladies involved happened to attend the same congregational services.

So what else is new? After all, while being Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, he also wrote another article (”Following Singapore’s Lead on the Road of Development”, Earth Times, January 15, 2001) which boasted: “There are no homeless, destitute or starving people in Singapore. Poverty has been eradicated, not through an entitlements program (there are virtually none) but through a unique partnership between the government, corporate citizens, self-help groups and voluntary initiatives.”

But it was scary to read that he once upset the Cubans by telling them that if it is legitimate for Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan, it will also be legitimate for the United States to invade Cuba. That was the result of his interpretation of the so-called simple rule of logic: All specific propositions can be universalised. In reality, the British philosopher he quoted, R.M. Hare in his book “The Language Of Morals”, was talking about the principle of universality of moral statements, not perverse twists of logic. Example of the latter: we don’t want our ministers to be tempted by money, so we pay them obscene sums of money.

In the same article that spoilt Mrs Tan’s day, Mahbubani also wrote that a logical argument in one culture is equally logical in another culture, “just as mathematical truths are equally valid in all cultures.” Oh yeah, the Talibans find it very logical to blow up the girls’ schools and not those for boys, since girls’ school teach promiscuity, a conspiracy of the West to inflict the Muslim children with deadly diseases. Let’s see Mahbubani embrace that in his culture.

It all goes to show that having your name prefixed with a “dean” doesn’t mean zilch. Remember the first female dean of the law faculty, the one featured on page 73?


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