--- Kenneth MacKendrick <kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca> wrote: > At 11:10 PM
7/31/01 +0000, you wrote:
>
> >I am clueless, This seems to beg all the questions that I said it it. I
> >am, say, a slavemaster. I say, Slave, build me a pyramid. You, the slave,
> >say,, You know, Habermas teaches that you can't say that and expect to be
> >understood without implicitly presupposing that we are free and equal
> >particpants in a noncercive speech situation, so even talking to me shows
> >that you are committed to the view that you have no right to give that
> command.
>
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?
Would a slave make a distinction between a pyramid and a pyramid-shaped folly?
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
===== ... in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. -- Bertrand Russell
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