[lit-ideas] Re: On being called a Lyre
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:47:54 -0230
A singularly intriguing phenomenon, Watson. This Michael Geary fellow provides
us with more than sufficent evidence to establish that he possesses some form
of genetic predisposition for the making or accepting of transcendental claims,
and yet he consistently denies their very possibility. Equally baffling is that
he consistently makes or accepts *false* transcendental claims. The poignancy
of it all is that the University of Memphis is presently searching for a
philosopher - yes, tenure-track, I hear. What is the poor soul to do?? This is
a moral matter, Watson, so I do wish you would stop leering at that woman
through my binoculars. (For Holmes, she was always "the woman.") She's left for
work at 8:45 this morning. Now where was I? Oh yes, And we know this is a moral
matter given the emotional responses I find coursing through my heart and
arteries.
Walter O.
Marc Hauser Chair of Morality and Neuroscience
Universitaet Koeningsburg
Quoting Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> EY:
> > Emotions provide moral intuitions that are necessary for deliberative
> > activity. Without them, there are no means for distinguishing the
> > slaughter of a cow from the slaughter of a person.
>
>
> I agree with this, but I hasten to point out that there are those among us
> who would fault you and I for not having the moral intuition to realize that
>
> there is no distinction between slaughtering a cow and slaughtering a
> person. I don't have an answer for them except to say that within my belief
>
> system there is such a distinction. I can't prove it, but I believe in a
> hierarchy of species of beings that approves of killing and eating any
> species that can't tell me not to. Sweet cultural approbation. It also
> allows for wars as long as you don't eat the enemy.
>
> Mike Geary
> Memphis
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Lit-Ideas@Freelists. Org" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 11:32 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: On being called a Lyre
>
>
> > Walter O. wrote:
> >
> > "I see you've been drinking with David Hume and Adam Smith again."
> >
> > There are worse drinking companions. I am particularly in agreement
> > with Hume on the importance and role of 'custom', which seems to be an
> > underdeveloped aspect in Hume scholarship.
> >
> > Walter continues:
> >
> > "I do not deny that the emotions can be motivating factors."
> >
> > My claim is not that their importance lies in motivation but rather
> > that emotions are necessary for both locating and identifying moral
> > issues. The shock and offense that comes from being confronted with
> > injustice provides moral discourse with the impetus and stuff for
> > deliberation. Consider the sociopath who is incapable of experiencing
> > moral outrage and therefore cannot engage in moral discourse.
> > Emotions provide moral intuitions that are necessary for deliberative
> > activity. Without them, there are no means for distinguishing the
> > slaughter of a cow from the slaughter of a person.
> >
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Phil Enns
> > Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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