On 3/17/2013 11:21 AM, raghu wrote: > Sorry but this is a mischaracterization of what I was saying. I couldn't > care less either about the so-called culture wars issues like gay > marriage, don't ask don't tell, school prayer etc. > > But Carrol Cox objects to moral discourse on *any* subject, even on > something like corporate greed. I see that he has recently he has > started talking about how capitalism should be opposed because it will > destroy the world if it is not stopped - which itself is really a moral > position whether or not he is willing to admit it. > > But in my opinion this is not enough. I am inclined to agree with Jim > that a discourse based on a moral principle like empathy is needed for > progressive arguments to be effective. > -raghu.
=============== Oh, no; you are mischaracterizing Carroll's position[s]. So what if Carroll objects to moral discourse, at least he is being [para]consistent. Surely it isn't immoral to criticize capitalism on nonmoral grounds? To assert as much reminds me of arguments I used to have in college when people would assert I was immoral in merely asserting that abortion had nothing to do with morality. What *evidence* do you have that Carroll's position that capitalism heralds the singularity or apocalypse is a moral position? The "whether he believes it or not" is just a tired old grammatical trick. Since the planet just got a new pope, try the following substitution, spoken from the Vatican; abortion and homoerotic sex are immoral whether anyone believes it or not." Leftists are rightfully on guard against such ridiculously authoritarian manners of speech. Carroll and others, whom I have mentioned to you off-list in the past, merely want to expand our guard to see such counterproductive speech acts as inimical to democratic deliberation over how to get along with one another and the planet. What evidence do you have that empathy is a moral principle rather than an aesthetic one? Is it a moral principle just because you say so? Perhaps one day in the future, our descendants will no more miss moral discourse than we miss discourse about phlogiston or the ether or the Roman deities. E _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
