[lit-ideas] Re: Univocal philosophy as the value of transcendental claims?
- From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 18:27:20 -0230
Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>:
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > What I have tried to suggest is that using the word 'theft' is to not
> > only pick out an act but at the same time assert the moral
> > prohibition.
>
>
> I agree 100%, The remaining question, however, is the force of that
> assertion. Is the assertion of moral prohibition a reference to something
> that exists and applies universally? Or, at the other extreme, an example of
> mystification? Assertion per se provides no warrant for either
> interpretation.
>
> There is, on the other hand, a plausible explanation for why assertions that
> resemble this one are made by members of all human societies. Humans are
> chordates, equipped with spinal chords and other biological apparatus that
> make us mobile. Like other chordates (vertebrates, mammals, primates, Homo
> Sapiens), we compete for territory, mates, pecking order position, and prey.
> Like other chordate species we have evolved rituals, stylized forms of
> behavior that moderate this competition, avoiding a situation in which every
> competitive encounter becomes a duel to the death. In other species these
> rituals are largely instinctive. In Homo Sapiens they are, in contrast,
> largely learned in cultural contexts shaped by the particular societies into
> which we are born or grow up. Effective socialization makes the feeling that
> there is something contrary to our immediate desires that constrains those
> desires compelling, but the nature of those constraints is variable. That
> they function to prevent human groups from collapsing in a war or all
> against all is obvious. That calling them "moral prohibitions" adds to the
> explanation is not.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
> --
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
>
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