[lit-ideas] Re: Malt, Coffee & Chuck Taylor

  • From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:05:42 -0230

Cute desert island story. But seriously folks: I have never encountered a
transcendental philosopher whose philosophy simply "assumed" anything
transcendental. Or relied on empirical evidence to support her account. All,
however, do rely on our Swiss Army Knives - yes the one with the cork screw
-and we carry them religiously (though not to the airport). 
Still between terms but not for long, Dr. O.

Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>:

> On 6/17/06, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > --- wokshevs@xxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > > Quoting Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>:
> > >
> > >
> > > > One question that one might put to the
> > > > historicists/culturalists is, do they think that
> > > their
> > > > own ideas are only valid within their own
> > > > geo-historical location ?
> > >
> > > You render the question as an empirical one, and,
> > > hence, it is without any
> > > philosophical interest. The interesting
> > > philosophical (epistemological)
> > > question is whether they have an epistemic right to
> > > believe otherwise.
> >
> > *I think that most of us here are old enough and
> > literate enough to see that this is what I was getting
> > at. There is however an empirical element to the
> > question because I would be interested to hear what
> > they think about this.
> >
> 
> We have, I believe, reached a fundamental disagreement.  Walter's
> demand for absolute, nonempirical knowledge is, outside of mathematics
> and other forms of the glass bead game, something I outgrew around
> 1965, when I looked at what I'd learned doing a B.A. in Philosophy and
> decided to go for a Ph.D. in social anthropology.
> 
> I recall a famous joke about three men on a desert island. All they
> have to eat is a can of beans. The Chemist calculates how hot their
> fire will have to be to make the can explode. The Physicist calculates
> how far the beans will fly and places leaves to catch them. The
> Economist says, "Assume a can opener."
> 
> The Philosopher imagined by Walter strikes me as being very like that
> Economist, with this important difference. The Economist's assumed can
> opener reminds me that there may be something else, a rock for
> example, that will serve in place of a can opener. The Philosopher's
> "Assume a transcendental" points to nothing at all.
> 
> Or, if it points to anything, it points to the human habit of making
> assumptions, a pretty solid matter of fact, which leads to the useful
> question, "What are they assuming?" The answer depends on empirical
> evidence, words and things, and is rarely found by navel-gazing.
> 
> -- 
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> 
> US CITIZEN ABROAD?
> YOU'RE THE DECIDER!
> Register to Vote in '06 Elections
> www.VoteFromAbroad.org
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
> 



------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. lit-ideas
  3. Archive
  4. 06-2006