ABSTRACT
Dogmatism is one of the real evils and one of the potent sources of injustice. Dogmatist is one who subscribes to, and acts upon, an explanatory theory that encompasses wide range of human activity, that is based on one or more unproveable and/or contentious premise. The dogmatist bypasses the normal reasoning process by refusing to discriminate. The perfect example is to be found in Kai Nielsen's argument surrounding the proposition that socialists should only engage in revolutionary violence in response to counter-revolutionary violence. Anybody but a dogmatist knows that Marx's vision was to some extent misplaced, while Lenin's vision will come about, if it does, not because of Marxist laws, but because of Marxist agency. The matter is slightly different with utilitarianism. It is not in fact a doctrine, as defined, since it is not an explanatory theory and makes no claim to being an overall theory.
