Steve, I think we are all living in some type of slavery, a slavery to patterns, for instance, and thought maybe you meant something like 'legally owned', but never mind.
Marsha -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Peterson Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 9:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MD] Marsha's Relativism On Aug 22, 2009, at 9:49 AM, MarshaV wrote: > > Hi Steve, > > Do you have one universal definition of 'slavery'? > > > Marsha > > Hi Marsha, I could never give a universal definition of "slavery" or any word. I think I could give a definition that we both could agree upon, but I don't think it would be necessary to do that because I think we both already know what slavery is. An ahistorical, transcultural, universal definition of slavery would make no sense because slavery is a historical cultural phenomenon. I can't imagine that "slavery" has any existence outside language or that slavery exists outside of culture. Can you? Likewise, "truth" as I understand it has no existence outside of culture-dependent language either. I don't see it as referring to some Platonic Form. If we both share an understanding of how "slavery, "immoral," and "true" function in language, then perhaps we can agree that it is true that slavery is immoral. If you need some qualifier like "all things being equal," then go ahead and add it. But unless you really are a thorough-going relativist, I think there ought to be some way for you to use "slavery, "immoral," and "true" in a sentence that you believe. Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
