Editing Head to Head with The Philosopher (section)

==Round 2: Toecutters vs Blek==

The toe cutters line up already left exposed by problems with the thin blue line was savaged when front man and team captain, Knuckles Rogers, arrived dressed in desert boots, hoody and crutches.  The quality of the toe cutter’s mettle was evident when foot soldier Gordon ‘the Pool Cleaner’ Patrick arrived via a day release program and Knuckles was wheeled into the arena and parked adjacent the bucket.  If the toe cutters had learnt anything from the University of Avalanche, they had learnt that it was not enough to know the buce, they needed to know how they had come to know the buce. 

How do we come to know things?  Is it primarily through our use of reason that we acquire knowledge or does experience gained through our senses play the most significant role?  These were the raw material with which the toe cutters were to forge the weaponry necessary for the battle ahead. 
Much of the history of Western philosophy has been coloured by the basic opposition between reason and experience as the foundational principle of knowledge.  Rationalists such as Immanuel Kant (aka ‘the real pissant’) argued that there are certain concepts or categories of thought, such as substance and causation, which we cannot learn from the world but which we are required to use in order to make sense of it, that is the real pissant was arguing for an a priori as well as a posteriori notion of knowledge. 
Some propositions are analytic in that they do not give any more information than is already contained in the meaning of the terms involved.  The truth of the statement ‘all wankers masturbate’ is apparent merely by virtue of understanding the meaning and relation of the words used.  By contrast, the statement ‘all Blek players are wankers’ is synthetic as it brings together or synchronises different concepts and so provides significant information.  To confirm the truth of the statement it is necessary to delve into the dirty and depraved behaviour and thinking of each and every one of the Blek players. 

A necessary truth is one that could not be otherwise – it must be true in any circumstance, or in all possible worlds.  A contingent truth is true but might not have been if things in the world had been different.  The Blek players are young and shit in bed but rather than being absolute this truth was contingent upon how all other unattractive young men behaved.  Perhaps the Blek players may not have been so shit in bed had they spent their earlier years practicing with other people rather than simply watching movies and having sex on their own.  

On the face of it an analytic statement, if true, is necessarily so and is known a priori; and a synthetic proposition, if true, is contingently so and is known a posteriori.  Rationalists and imperialists differ on many things but they do each agree that there is some basis (reason or experience) upon which our knowledge is founded – in that sense they are both foundationalists.  An influential alternative to the foundationalists is coherentism, in which knowledge is seen as an interlocking mesh of beliefs, all the strands which support each other to form a coherent body or structure – albeit a structure without a single foundation. 
So there it was – the toe cutters had found the glue that would bind their individual efforts into a collective force.  Rather than flounder and fumble aimlessly alone and independent, the toe cutters needed to support each others efforts – each seemingly unrelated movement and thought was now beginning to form a network – each supporting another and was supported by others.  Glen ‘Connections’ Everson And Drew ‘The Postman’ Cowen did not need to get the perfect touch that would propel the buce into the goal - they merely needed to support the other’s efforts.  In a blindingly simple move Connections simply placed his foot on the buce and at that precise moment The Postman ‘delivered’ the momentum to Connections’ foot and the buce was scored.   
It is now a matter of statistical interest that at some point prior to the toe cutters buce, Blek had badly misjudged a pass and ended up scoring a double buce.  It has also been revealed that while the toe cutters defenders were attempting to hoist Knuckles back up to a vertical plane following a three metre fall onto exposed vertebrae, Blek dropped the buce into an undefended bucket and astoundingly claimed their second double buce.   
The final score will show a four – one win to Blek but the day will surely be remembered for one thing and one thing only.  Sunday 17 May 2009 was the day the toe cutter scoring beast first drew breath and having now sucked on the teat of the buce, prepare for the feast to come. 

Round three is coming – The Scourge - bring it on, bring it on.