Donald T Palmgren (lonewolf@utkux.utcc.utk.edu)
Fri, 20 Mar 1998 05:29:08 +0100
On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, Keith A. Gillette wrote:
> idea to overthrow a society, and that this objection would defeat
> evolutionary ethics. It is unmistakably true that on Pirsig's account the
> ideas, 'peanut butter is the foundation of morality', and 'whites are
> superior to blacks', each have the same force in justifying the overthrow
> of a society which represses them as the notion of 'human equality' had in
> the Civil War. However, the salient point which must be understood is this:
> It is the job of the intellect, not of society, to determine which ideas
> are good and which are bad. Any society which represses ideas is
> fundamentally immoral."
Hmmmm...
I'm suspicious. Societies always decide what is true.
Proving is a social activity. What counts as proof changes from
one society or era or age to another. The emperical observations of an
objective and detatched observer processed through a rigorous scientific
method is a social value we possess -- it has far from always been the
method employed for proving. We value that method of proof -- others have
not. We say ours is more acurate -- that it is better because it yields
the truth, etc. But wait! Stop and think. How do you prove the truth
value betwwen two systems of proof? This is why I say, we know what it
means for F=ma to be true, but what does "Science is true!" mean? True
how? Scientificly? That dosn't make sense. A fact is true because it is
proven. A proof is true because it is socially accepted as the best, most
socialable, most moral means of setteling a dispute (this is why all facts
are moral, and since the universe is constructed of facts, this is where
Hegel calls it "ethical substance" which is both ethical and substantial).
Aristoltle has been getting a lot of flak for creating this ideal
of a detached objective observer. He didn't. Come on people. In the
PHYSICS A says that things below the sphear of the moon will travel in
straight lines and above the moon they will travel in perfect circles. An
arrow will travel straight until it expends it's energy and then it will
fall straight to the earth.
Now, observation "proves" (BE SUSPICIOUS) otherwise. So either (a)
A. never saw a thrown object before, (b) he has some deep metaphorical
meaning which nobody's ever figured out, (c) he was a complete idiot (this
is what they teach in high school chemistry), or (d) objective emperical
observation was not what A (or his Greek admierers) counted as proof.
Plese consider: When Ben Franklin wrote "Honesty is the best
policy," what did he mean by "honesty?"
Ar you perhaps familer w/ the Austrian composer Hiden? He lived
contemporary to Franklin -- the Post-Enlightenment generation. Hiden was
born a peasent but he had a remarkable musical gift. He became a teacher
and composer. He went over to Englind for a time, and found them always
singing "God save our great lord, the King..." (the tune here in America
is "My country 'tis of the...") and decided, "Boy, we need something like
that back in Austria!" So he takes the tune home and tweeks it some, has a
poet write the patriotic words... Later the Natzis tweeked it again...
But I digress. At any rate. Hiden built his rep. and was even the
teacher to Baetoven. One day he was walking in the park and he passed
Goethe (who was vice-chanceler at this time) and the adult (and famous)
Von Baetoven (the "Von" was completly fake). And Goethe, being this man of
the Enligtenment, bows to Hiden, and Baetoven just barges right by. He
asks Goethe, "Why did you bow to that commener?"
Or consider this tale:
Hiden got hiered by some ruler of one of the countless Germanic
principalities (Germany didn't exist for a while yet) to instruct the
Prince. The Prince played the bayrotone (the string instrement, not the
voice) and so Hiden wrote like 120 pieces for a string trio w/ the
bayratone and viola and I think violen or something. Anyway they're quite
impresive because it's hard to write music w/ 3 instruments of such
limited range...
Now, a feature on the 18th century household was: you were never
alone. Even sleeping (if you were a nobel) you had servents w/ you. (BTW,
the very idea that people could exist alone as an individual entity was a
result of Christianity -- you can't have a lone self w/o an omni-present
God [or so the argument goes], but it was a fact that the Greeks and other
"primativs" didn't think this way -- that's why you can't "psychologize
Aristotle." For A, the self exists as a social self. You are first a mere
potentiality, and only when you interact w/ others do you become "the one
who did that" or "the kind of person who would do that sort of thing." I
may think of myself as having a beautiful voice, but if I begin to sing
and everyone runs for the doors...)
But back to my story. Hiden sneeks off to the attic and practices
playing the bayratone himself, aand gets to be very good. One day the
Prince's father had some guests over and he asks Hiden to play something.
And Hiden borrows the Prince's bayratone and plays it better that the
Prince ever would. And the Prince's father looks at him disaprovingly and
says, "Herr Hiden, I thought you knew better than that."
Now, why in all of creation did I tell this story?
Because, Hiden prided himself on his *honesty*. He wrote all the
time how that was his chief virtue. What did he mean?
"Honesty" is an ideal of the bourgeois middle class intellectuals,
to use to establish their social status (and moral superiority) in the
face ogf their social superiors. What Ben Franklin was saying was, "It's
better to be inteligent than aristocracy."
Now how about that?
Enlightenment ideals start (not suprising) w/ the Enlightenment.
What Aristotle was, was not two things:
He wasn't a Christion
And he wasn't a scientist (not even a bad one)
Now, whose got problems w/ that?
Who has an idea what this means about, "What really exists?" and
thw MoQ?
Who thinks I'm just out of my mind?
TTFN
Donny
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