From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 23:17:37 GMT
DMB,
I think most of your complaints about Kevin are about stage-setting rather
than about what Kevin is arguing. But, on two notes I would take the time
to offer plausible responses:
DMB said:
Justify ourselves in a formal, systematic, foundational, air-tight way!? Are
we talking about Pirsig's book? Are you talking about the MOQ? I don't see
how you could be?
Matt:
Really? How about this: if Kevin had said that about ZMM, I might have
been more inclined to agree with you. However, Kevin is saying this about
Lila and it is not hard at all to see Lila as an effort in justifying the
statements he made in ZMM. Like to Rigel, for instance.
DMB said:
No philosophy has stopped tyranny?! Are you kidding? Don't you think the
heart and soul of the Enlightenment project was the development of political
philosophies aimed at liberty and the overthrow of tranny? I do.
Matt:
I tend to agree with Kevin when he says, "No philosophy is armor against
tyranny." I take his point to be that, even if the Jew is a better
philosopher than the Nazi, that won't stop the Nazi. When Kevin says,
"Historically, no philosophy has stopped tyranny," I take his point to be
that liberal philosophy hasn't stopped tyranny, liberal institutions
have. I follow Rorty in thinking that political philosophy is parasitic on
politics and that political philosophies are typically simply summaries of
current political intuitions. This is not always the case. Sometimes they
offer us revolutionary new ways of seeing how things hang together. But
just because you've worked out philosophically how to maximize liberty
(whatever that could mean) doesn't mean you've stopped tyranny. You have
to work these things out in the political sphere. I take Kevin's point to
be that philosophy is a good servant of politics, but a poor ruler.
As a side note, I follow Rorty in thinking that the Enlightenment had two
distinct projects. One was the liberal political project which is still
the best option we have. The other is the modern philosophical project
which, as far as I'm concerned, is dead.
Matt
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