I wanted to find a Thanksgiving related argument, and came up with something fascinating.
P1. Thanksgiving is held in November
P2. The first Thanksgiving was held in October
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C. We should move Thanksgiving from November to October, and move Halloween from October to November.
Or at least the author of the article says so. http://www.americanwaymag.com/thanksgiving-lime-green-rubber-thing-food-halloween
I did a bit of research, and found out that All Hallows Eve - or Halloween - actually takes place on November 1st. So the switch would actually make sense.
But why, in particular, is the fact that someone used to do something at a different time any grounds at all for why we should change the time we do it? Perhaps they had reasons (unstated) for thinking this was a good idea, but unless we know what those reasons are, I think it's a non-starter.
ReplyDeletePeople argue for many things based on tradition, but all by itself it's a weak appeal at best -- if tradition prevailed, we'd still have slavery, as it's one of the oldest traditions in human history!
This argument relies on tradition, but that tradition may not be all that strong. Tradition is only valid up to a point.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that tradition, in and of itself, is never a valid point. It always has to be modified with something else in order to gain validity. For instance: "We play volleyball every Friday afternoon because it is tradition." versus "We play volleyball every Friday afternoon because it is a tradition that we greatly enjoy."
ReplyDeleteTradition merely implies that there is some actual reason to do something a certain way.
I agree with tradition as a reasoning and also that an unprecedented change in a holiday date would confuse people. The logical value of changing the day may be outweighed by the amount of confusion it would cause.
ReplyDelete