On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 7:29 PM, David Bruggeman <[email protected]> wrote: > 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.
Fair enough. > 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. Semi-related: Since the passing of Robert B. Parker, I've been rereading all his books that I own, and setting about purchasing the books of his that I don't own. Last weekend, I read the second book in the "Appaloosa" trilogy for the first time. The two lead characters, though guns-for-hire, were also avid readers, and in this book, they discussed a few philosophers as only they could. At one point they were contemplating Rousseau's theory that a child left free of outside influence will grow up to be a good person who does good things. The two gunslingers concluded that, since it isn't possible for a child to grow up in such a situation, there was no point in discussing the theory. It wasn't that it wasn't valid, it just didn't matter. That is more or less how I feel about most of the philosophers I've studied, and it is why I didn't take too many philosophy classes in college -- the classroom debates you referenced tended to seem fruitless to me. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- 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.
