[lit-ideas] Re: The meaning of life

Hurriedly, lest I be confronted by the List Spelling Police: my first sentence
of my third paragraph below should read: "Neither Kant nor Habermas denigrates
the ethical."

Whew! That was a close one. Must run; there's a knock at my front door.

Always spell-bound,

Walter O.




Quoting wokshevs@xxxxxx:

> Enthusiasm for projects aiming at philosophical truth and rightness - to
> differentiate it from the "moral enthusiasm" Kant deprecated - is not
> balanced
> by caricature. Justifiable enthusiasm is, I believe, the
> Golden Mean between caricaturing and ... whatever the contrary vice would
> be.
> (Is it a vice to be overly accurate and precise?)  Anyway ...
> 
> In the passage Phil cites, Habermas is indeed very much in keeping with
> Kant.
> As
> he generally is in matters transcendental throughout his writings of the 80s
> and
> 90s. What Kant meant by the distinction between moral law and conceptions of
> the
> good is basically - yes, there's room to debate the scope of "basically"
> here,
> but perhaps some other time -  what Habermas refers to in the distinction he
> draws below between moral argumentation (discourse) which intends the
> discovery/construction of universally valid norms/judgements/decisions and
> "ethical" matters which concern culture-/religion-specific worldviews
> admitting
> of no universal validity. 
> 
> Neither Kant nor Habermas denigrate the ethical. As Phil's choice of
> quotation clearly shows, one's socialization into a cultural form of life is
> empirically necessary for any attempt to deliberate upon moral matters. One
> who abides by Kant's Categorical Imperative, or by Habermas's dialogical
> reinterpretation of it, is one who has already been acculturated into a
> tradition of values, virtues and practices from which she draws for the
> formation of her maxims (willings and actions). The CI cannot itself
> generate
> maxims for individuals who ain't got none. The CI, like Habermas's notion of
> "discourse," identifies only the form of law - only the formal, procedural
> epistemic conditions transcendentally universal because necessary for the
> justifiability of validity claims to moral rightness.
> Interlocutors within discourse offer for mutual agreement and joint
> deliberation their present and particular understandings of their own needs
> and
> interests as these have been shaped by the cultural traditions and
> worldviews
> they have biographically appropriated. 
> 
> Walter O
> MUN 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Quoting Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>:
> 
> > Eric Yost wrote:
> > 
> > "Human beings have layerings of motives -- some explicit, some
> > undiscovered, some adventitious -- that interfere with the "purity" of
> > an attempt at ideal judgment. The very term "transcendental" reeks of
> > the sly power grab, the looming, the looking down upon, the lording it
> > over ... whether in moral judgment or in a swami's meditation."
> > 
> > This is a caricature, perhaps balancing the somewhat enthusiastic
> > defence by Walter of Kantian transcendental thought.  Here is a more
> > nuanced account from Habermas that is relevant to this thread:
> > 
> > 'Since a philosophy which has become self-critical does not trust
> > itself any longer to offer universal assertions about the concrete
> > whole of exemplary forms of life, it must refer those affected to
> > discourses in which they answer their substantial questions
> > themselves.  The parties should examine in moral argumentation what is
> > equally good for all.  But first they must become clear about what the
> > good is for themselves in their respective contexts.  These ethical
> > questions in a stricter sense, concerning a life that is worthwhile or
> > is preferable, can find an answer only in context-dependent discourses
> > of self-understanding.  These answers will be more differentiated and
> > more appropriate depending upon how rich the identity-building
> > traditions are that support self-assurance.'
> > 
> > Habermas' thought isn't always consistent with this admission but here
> > he is in accord with the Master.
> > 
> > 
> > Sincerely,
> > 
> > Phil Enns
> > Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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> 
> 
> 
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