Kells advises meto go interlinear, so I shall from here on after.
When I said:
>
>
I mean that argument
>doesn't change people's minds about the kind of fixed-point first order
>moral judgments that philosophical theses are supposed to explain, like
>"abortion is wrong" or "people should not be allowed to starve in the
>streets."
I didn't mean that _nothing_ changes people's minds, just that philosophical style argument generally doesn't. As I said to Kenneth a while back, people respond to stories, rhetoric, visions and dreams, poetry, and of course, to their own interests and experiences.
So I agree with Charles, who says:
>
>CB: And if the standard is that philosophers have interpreted the world in
>a number of ways but the thing is to change it, then uh oh. How about
>people having their minds changed by experience and practice , practice in
>conjunction with a mind full of philosophical arguments ?
>
That is what I meant a while ago when I told Luke that you don't approach ethics from outside politics, but from within a political framework. And a political framework is a practical one. Luke, you might start your study of historical materialism with meditations on Marx's Theses on Feuerbach, which is short and decptively simple. I have been thinking about it, yea this quarter century, since I was your age, actually, Luke, and I am still learning from it.
>
>CB: Then there is the other way around from above: Our ability to change
>the world is the proof that we know some of the truth.
>
As I've said many times.
>
>CB: Hey, I went to school at U of Mich, wondered about philo. Later Justin
>went to U of Mich, and took the philo bull by the horns. And we both advise
>our young colleague to get with historical materialism
>
No time like the present.
>
> >
> >I'm a sophomore trying to decide between English and philosophy. In any
> >event, I plan on whoring myself out as a lawyer.
> >
>
>Ahem. As an attorney, I represent that remark.
>
>((((((((
>
>CB: Sounds like a budding pragmatist to me.
>
Speak for yourself, Charles, I gotta go now and do some justice.
--jks
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