Subject to Revision?

Why give this blog such a title?

Let me start by saying that, to be perfectly honest, what is discussed on this blog is "filtered," to some degree. As philosopher Wayne Booth once wrote, "[W]e can see only what our equipment allows us to see" (Critical Understanding 33). What people say is filtered through their own understanding of the world, and, while we certainly do our best, we can't claim perfection. We are human beings. That means that some of what we write is subject to revision.

And that's a good thing. It's a good thing because when we have the attitude that what we are and what we do ought to be subject to revision--to improvement--we enable ourselves to see ways in which we can improve. Said another way, one of the worst things we can thing and attitudes we can have is believing that what we say and do is fine the way it is or worse, perfect.

If we do not claim that we are subject to revision, how do we know of our susceptibility to error?

Only by acknowledging that we are human beings and that we make mistakes (though we certainly don't want to be constantly talking about it!) do we put ourselves in a better state of mind to discover truth. What we see changes depending on our attitudes and emotions, and when we're thinking that we're always right, we necessarily blind ourselves so that we are unable to see the instances when we are not.

Subject to Revision does not discuss only writing, but also living. Or, as the Greek proverb says much more eloquently, "As with life, so with words."