The Wager (Re: Interview with Noam Chomsky by Radio B92, Belgrade (fwd)

Ian Murray seamus2001 at home.com
Tue Sep 18 10:14:13 PDT 2001



>
> That costly and protracted wars with high levels of casualties tend
> to destablize all states involved, heightening social contradictions
> & bringing down some regimes, is a matter of historical knowledge
> (Cf. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War), independent of our ethical
> preferences. How you make use of such historical knowledge
> politically is up to you. BTW, there is another possibility that I
> have not mentioned in my post that you condemn:
>
========= Historical knowledge is never independent of all agents ethical preferences; indeed alot of history is made as a result of agents ethical preferences. The independence assumption of 'historical methods' is too problematic to be of use at this juncture.

Ian



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