[lit-ideas] Re: On linguistic and genetic uncertainty

  • From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:19:21 +0200

I am not sure how it follows from the view that value judgments are
contingent / culturally relative that we are entitled to be ethnocentric.
One could at least equally logically conclude from this that we should be
cautious about making value judgments. No ?

O.K.


On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
wrote:

> Now how could I possibly disagree with a fellow-Canadian? (Ethnocentrism
> vindicated.) Thanks for sharing, Chris.
>
> Preparing for Germany vs USA.
>
> Opa Walter
>
> P.S. Ever notice entropy isn't what it used to be?
>
>
> Quoting cblists@xxxxxxxx:
>
> >
> > On 22 Jun 2014, at 19:14, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > The agreement Rorty seeks on the justifiability of his ethnocentrism
> must
> > be intended as agreement by a universal audience. ... Rorty's espousal of
> > ethnocentrism displays performative self-contradiction, for what it
> > explicitly says is contradicted by what it shows in the saying (and
> *must*
> > show in the saying for the saying to say what it's saying). Any position
> that
> > cannot be expressed without contradicting itself, performatively or
> > logically, is not a rational position to maintain ...
> >
> > Did Rorty seek a universal audience, or was he merely wishing to convince
> > believers in (what I will, I hope unproblematically, call) the
> Enlightenment
> > Project that their faith is not grounded in rational argument, but merely
> > intellectual 'hand-waving' which in the end says nothing more than
> 'that's
> > the way we do things around here'?
> >
> > If Rorty imagined that he accomplished this by rational argument, then
> he was
> > indeed guilty of the contradiction which Walter points out above. By his
> own
> > account, he should only have been able to indulge in that same
> 'intellectual
> > handwaving'. And that begs the question.
> >
> > Will Kymlicka, in his "Liberalism and Communitarianism", argues that
> Rorty's
> > position was dogmatic.  Rorty was not predicting that we will be unable
> to
> > find universal, rational grounds and means of persuasion for our moral
> > positions, he was claiming from the outset that he knew 'in advance of
> the
> > arguments' that such 'universal' rational grounds and means of persuasion
> > will only be compelling to particular historical communities. In
> Kymlicka's
> > words, "Rorty ... simply presuppose[s] ... that Kantian liberal theories
> > won't work. ... Rorty has decided he doesn't even have to examine the
> > theories - and that is just dogmatism."
> >
> > Chris Bruce
> > Kiel, Germany
> >
> > Will Kymlicka, "Liberalism and Communitarianism", in the Canadian
> Journal of
> > Philosophy, Vol. 18, No. 2 (June 1988), pp. 181-204; reprinted in several
> > philosophical collections, including Andrew Bailey, ed.,      FIRST
> PHILOSOPHY:
> > FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS AND READINGS IN PHILOSOPHY, Broadview Press
> > (Peterborough, Canada), 2004; Vol 1: VALUES AND SOCIETY, pp. 324-338.
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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: