[lit-ideas] Re: Russian?
- From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 18:38:25 -0330
Just to be clear. What I take to be transcendental here is the "fact" that rules
are social conventions which have their force and significance through agents'
accordance with and recognition of them in social, purposive interaction. They
are as such learned, and necessarily so.
A T'l argument to that effect would have to begin with our actual capacity for
speaking and learning a language, and reconstruct the apriori conditions
necessary for the possibility of all that. Such an argument, I contend, would
not be "historical" in the sense of being historically relative. If
successful/correct, the argument would identify necessary and universal
conditions of a practice wherever that practice is practiced, and even if that
practice were no longer practiced. The historical and cultural origins of a
practice, being empirical matters, are irrelevant in T'l argument. I.e. that a
German identified correctly a couple of apriori conditions of moral judgement,
doesn't make autonomy a German phenomenon. And, while laws of nature are not
T'l, the laws of gravity (properly circumscribed) are not British.
Walter O
MUN
Quoting Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>:
> There is obviously an innate ability to acquire language in humans (not
> shared with hedgehogs, presumably) but to claim the existence of an innate
> grammar is in effect to claim that we are born with language, or some crucial
> aspects of it. This seems highly unlikely on logical grounds. We aren't born
> knowing the words of a language, or sounds, so why should we be born with a
> grammar ? Those who make such an unlikely claim carry the burden of empirical
> proof, which as far as I know hasn't been provided. But I don't think that I
> would go as far as to say that this is a transcendental argument, i.e. it is
> logically possible or imaginable that this could be the case.
>
> O.K.
>
>
>
> On Sunday, January 5, 2014 7:35 PM, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> I believe that McWhorter's "language hoax" is right on. But perhaps my
> reasons
> for that conclusion differ from his. Mine are transcendental. I'm not sure
> what
> his are. But if they're strictly empirical, he doesn't have a leg to stand
> on.
>
> Those amongst us who wish to claim that "It's really all cultural" or "It's
> really all political" may wish to consider whether that claim is an empirical
> claim or one making a transcendental (i.e. universal and necessary) claim
> about
> relations between concepts their possibilities and limits given our "form of
> life" or "being-in-the-world."
>
> Walter O
>
>
> Quoting Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>:
>
> > Julie wrote
> >
> >
> > The article which triggered my original question was all about language
> > acquisition and fluency development. Any general reactions to this?
> >
>
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/30/258376009/how-language-seems-to-shape-ones-view-of-the-world?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook
> >
> >
> > You might want to look at
>
> >
> >
> >
>
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/30/258376009/how-language-seems-to-shape-ones-view-of-the-world?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook>
> >
> >
>
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf_hypothesis.html
> >
> >
> > The so-called Sapir-Whorf (Whorf was Sapir's student; they did not
> > collaborate) has been around for a long time, under the name 'linguistic
> > relativity.' Most people think it's been thoroughly debunked, although a
> > 'weaker version of it' is still around.
> >
> >
> > This is the origin of the view your article sets out.
> >
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_time_controversy
> >
> >
> > might be of interest
> >
> >
> > Robert Paul, who has a vast indifference to time
> >
>
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