[lit-ideas] R. M. Hare and the Conscientious Nazi
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:34:17 EDT
W. Okshevski commenting on Donal McEvoy:
"acts of immorality have their source
primarily not in viciousness of character but rather in an ignorance of what
universal canons of rationality require. As Kant, Habermas and Tom Scanlon
(amongst others) have it, immorality is rooted in not understanding the
nature
and significance of a justifiable reason for belief, judgment or action. Vice
has its origins not in limitations of character, lack of control over one's
natural impulses (Aristotle's "weakness of will"), but rather in the
inability
to reason properly from premises to conclusions."
Well, apply this to a Nazi war criminal like Eichmann. Arendt wants to say
that "Boese" (evil) is _banal_ and springs from ignorance. Would you label that
a Kantian position?
R. M. Hare seems to enjoy discussing Gedanke-experimente involving the
Nazis. Hare is trying to say that the Nazi mandate cannot allow for
'universalizability'. There was the case study of the Nazi general who
discovers he has
Jewish blood in his veins, and thus sends himself to a concentration camp.
On the other hand, J. L. Borges has a poem, "I Jew" -- which I transcribe:
----
I, a Jew
Borges Acevedo is my name. Ramos Mejia lists the family names in Buenos
Aires at that time in order to demonstrate that all, or almost all, 'came from
Judeo-Portuguese stock'. 'Acevedo' is included in the list.
Two hundred years and I can't find the Israelite; two hundred years and my
ancestor still elludes me.
"I am grateful for the stimulus, but hope is dimming that I will ever be
able to discover my link to the Table of the Breads and the Sea of Bronze; to
Heine, Gleizer, and the ten Sefiroth; to Ecclesiastes, and Chaplin."
"Statistically, the Hebrews were few. What would we think of someone in the
year 4000 who uncovers people from San Juan Province everywhere? Our
inquisitors seek out Hebrews, but never Phoenicians, Garamantes, Scythians,
Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Ethiopians,
Illirians,
Paphlagonians, Sarmatians, Medes, Ottomans, Berbers, Britons, Libyans,
Cyclopes,
or Lapiths."
"The nights of Alexandria, or Babylon, or Carthage, of Memphis, never
succeeded in engendering a single grandfather; it was only to the tribes of the
bituminous Dead Sea that this gift was granted"
(1934) --.
Cheers,
JL
_JSTOR: Fanaticism and Hare's Moral Theory_
(http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-1704(197701)87:2<165:FAHMT>2.0.CO;2-2)
The case of the Nazi fanatic puts extreme pressure on Hare's system, and
under the pressure Hare has come to modify his theory so as to turn it into a
...
links.jstor.org/links.jstor.org/<WBR>sici?sici=0014-1704(197701)87%3A2%3C165%3
AFAHMT%3E2._Similar pages_
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=related:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-1704(197701)87%3A2%3C165%3AFAHMT%3E2.0.CO%
3B2-2)
_JSTOR: The Implications of Prescriptivism_
(http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8094(196910)19:77<348:TIOP>2.0.CO;2-K)
For one cannot be a Nazi fanatic, on Hare's account, unless his desire that
his ideal be realized is stronger than all those other desires, taken
together, ...
links.jstor.org/links.jstor.org/<WBR>sici?sici=0031-8094(196910)19%3A77%3C348%
3ATIOP%3E2._Similar pages_
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=related:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8094(196910)19%3A77%3C348%3ATIOP%3E2.0.CO%3
B2-K)
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