Thanks, Kevin. I won't continue the philosophical discussion, as I'd run the risk of putting words in Dancy's mouth (For all I know, I've botched the explanation of moral particularism). Given the way the interview came about, I'm not sure that Dancy came there with the notion of explaining moral particularism to the hobos and the home audience, but possibly in teaching it to Craig via conversation/dialogue. It's just not a lesson that takes in the time between Sham-Wow ads.
Dancy probably isn't trying to be (or become) a public intellectual in the way Rand was in her appearance with Snyder. He accepted an invitation offered on a chance utterance and may well have taken it in the spirit it was given. He was having the kind of philosophical discussion I've seen (and attempted to participate in) in various classes, and what Dancy is probably engaged with now at his conference in San Francisco. He's an authority in the field, but not an ambassador. David ________________________________ From: Kevin M. <[email protected]> Snyder, like Ferguson, was attempting to get a philosopher to expound upon a particular approach. Like Ferguson, Snyder admits (at least) to not reading any material beforehand. But Dancy, unlike Rand, seemed more comfortable on camera (Rand & Snyder had no studio audience, much to Rand's benefit), but appeared unclear of how to explain his perspective, which he had to have known he'd be expected to do. Yes, they had to start from scratch, but this interview never left scratch and remained scratch for 13 minutes. Again, I concede it is unfair to have expected Craig to do as well as Tom did in this interview, since I consider the Snyder/Rand interview to be among the best I've ever seen. But I frankly don't have a large pool of philosophers-on-talk-shows to draw from. I suppose one might consider Richard Dawkins (if one is drunk, deaf, and blind), but he doesn't seem to subscribe to a particular philosophy, if for no other reason than he doesn't seem to understand any of them (don't get me wrong -- Dawkins may have a one-in-a-lifetime scientific mind, but when he talks or writes about anything else, I want to say to him what Ricky Gervais says to Karl Pilkington: "Stop talking sh*t!"). -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
