From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Thu May 29 2003 - 23:04:07 BST
Phyllis,
Phyllis said:
Lily is a rich woman who has a child out of wedlock and a different lover
after. She is rich and the epitome of elegance. It is said of her that
"Her taste was perfect, so her morals didn't matter."
My interpretation of this in light of the MOQ, is that this is a version of
arete. A development of character that enables one to act in ways that
maximize dynamic quality gains while minimizing degenerative experiments.
It includes the harmonization of all dyanmic gains and static patterns.
This means that intellectual development is not necessary to make those
gains; i.e. a morality based on reasoned argument is not required to be
moral, but an instinctual sensitivity in sorting experience is.
So, Matt I disagree with your definition of taste as being about things that
are inconsequential. Taste is innate, based on feeling. Twentieth first
century humans feel that taste is therefore only to be trusted in trivial
matters. But taste can be moral too.
Matt:
I don't like your interpretation because I think it rehabilitates the taste/morality distinction in a particularly Kantian fashion. Taste is "based on feeling" and morality is "based on reasoned argument," or simply, Reason. This is what the pragmatist wants to get rid of. The Quality metaphor dissolves any hard distinction between taste and morals. That means that taste isn't the only thing that's innate or based on feeling (I don't use innate in the sense of a priori, but in the sense of pre-reflective), but morality, too. And morality isn't the only thing based on reasoned arguments, but taste, too. After acknowledging that they are not different in kind, pragmatists propose a continuum between taste and morality and suggest definitions of them that kind of match up with the way we generally use the words. Part of what this continuum means is that "taste can be moral, too." As certain tastes, like pornography, stretch into areas of consequence, they begin to look
like important areas of concern where disagreements may have harmful effects on people.
Matt
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