[lit-ideas] Re: Alice on Universalizability
- From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:52:01 -0330
Nothing ridculous here at all. Alice is saying that the Queen's maxim is
self-contradictory when universalized. (In a world in which everybody did it,
nobody could do it, if you follow my Kantian drift. No rational being could
will such a maxim to hold as a universal law, applicable to all.) Thus, the
maxim is morally impermissible. The Queen probably doesn't ever get a flu shot
either, since she knows that everybody else is getting one and so she believes
her chances of catching the flu are low. And she definitely had no qualms about
plagiarism.
What I was implying below with my "hey" - oh dear god, I said a word bearing
surface resemblance to "implicature"! - is that the validity of the Categorical
Imperative does not apply to the New Year season as defined by the Eastern and
Western Christian Churches (since no "facts of reason" hold sway at this time).
So my version of the CI reads: "Act only on those maxims that you could will to
also hold as universal laws, except when you can't." Something like the rights
and freedoms identified in the Canadian Charter: these rights and freedoms
apply to all persons except when democracy says otherwise.
But here's a hard nut: If everybody always paid their credit card bills in
full,
the credit card companies would go bankrupt since their profits depend upon
interest charges laid on people paying only a percentage of their total bill
each month. And in a world in which there were credit companies, nobody would
be able to pay their credit card bill in full. Hence that maxim is
self-contradictory (self-defeating, "self-annulling" as The Master writes) and
thus morally wrong. But is it really? (Ca voulait dire: Is this a false
negative?) What would Alice say (and not only when she's 10 feet tall)?
Fooling around at The Symposium until the commencement of Winter term on Monday
when I actually have to start doing some teaching. (Who was it that decided to
allow students into the university, anyway? C'est bizarre!)
Walter O
P.S. I'm not at all clear on the grounds of Donal's premise about Walter "being
human." Was it something I said? Is an apology in order for being
silicone-based?
Quoting Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx:
> Interesting that McEvoy should mention universalizability:
>
> "Being human, sooner or later Walter was going to say something that sits
> ill
> with a Kantian universalizability of maxims. But, hey, it's New Year."
>
> Indeed. Hey.
>
> This reminds me of "Alice in Wonderland:
>
> -----
>
> `Please, would you tell me -- ' Alice began, looking timidly at the Red
> Queen.
>
> `Speak when you're spoken to!' The Queen sharply interrupted her.
>
> `But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for
> a little argument, `and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the
> other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say
> anything, so that -- '
>
> `Ridiculous!' cried the Queen.
>
> ----- I wonder if it is all as ridiculous as the Red Queen thought it was.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
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