Ethical foundations of the left

Kenneth MacKendrick kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca
Wed Aug 1 07:37:13 PDT 2001


At 07:33 AM 8/1/01 +0100, you wrote:


>I question whether a shell-game isn't being played with "understanding" in
>this
>example. Does a slave really understand what he's doing in building a
>pyramid?

I'm not sure this matters.

In any event, it doesn't change the dynamics of the relation between speaking and understanding.


>We often get told at work an anecdote about three stonemasons being asked what
>they're up to. One says "I'm trimming stones", the second says "Earning a
>guilder a day" and the third says "Building a wonderful cathedral". The moral
>of the story is usually "bonuses will be crap this year and it's not my
>fault",
>but I think that there is some point to the story in that unless we are in an
>equal and noncoercive situation, we have no hope of understanding
>*exactly* the
>same thing.
>
>dd

You see, doesn't this joke provide us with an example of systematically distorted communication? You've left it open: the moral of the story is holding the place of the ideal (holding place of, not is the ideal).

ken



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