[lit-ideas] Re: On being called a Lyre
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:02:08 -0400
WO: Eric Yost honours the unworthy in posing such
profound questions to me.
EY: Your post makes me suspect I am honoring the
dismissive ... but hey! ... dismissive people
deserve honoring too.
WO: What would philosophical (transcendental)
inquiry into the nature, conditions, possibilities
and limits of objective knowledge have to do with
politics?
EY: You are an academician equating the
"philosophical" with the transcendental. I'm
merely a literary bloke equating "philosophical
inquiry" with the empirical and existential
bumblings of voters.
WO: If EY is asking about the making of
*justifiable* choices, *morally right* or
*politically legitimate* choices, then clearly
certain forms of knowledge are required, which
forms depend upon the nature of the choice being
contemplated. . . . . . We should be asking about
the requisite knowledge about the "internal" and
intersubjective worlds if our interest is in
political choice. (*The common mind*, P. Pettit)
EY: Though unacquainted with the bantam-sounding
P.Pettit or his no-doubt valiant struggle to
depict the common-or-garden-variety intellect, I
think you're polishing the wrong philosopher's
stone. It's a pretty stone, granted, but it yields
obfuscation rather than gold.
WO: Justifiable political (or any kind of)
decision-making strategies must, apriori, express
morally justifiable maxims.
EY: Says who? Are you out of your mind, Walter?
WO: There are no minds - only networks of
behavioral dispositions.
EY: Who is trying to persuade me of this?
WO: Cultural differentiations have no necessary
relation to our moral obligations.
EY: Agreed. One can flummox in any language.
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