Rorty on Cant

Charles Brown CharlesB at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
Mon Apr 1 10:13:44 PST 2002


Rorty on Cant Thomas Seay <entheogens at yahoo.com> Subject:

Charles: This Cant reminds of Kant and Can't.

Oh , I Kan't know the thing-in-itself. I just Kan't decide. I just Kan't know for sure. I'm always Open and questioning, skeptical, The Critical Philosophy. So, I Kan't DO much, because I'm always questioning everything.

^^^^^^^

The work in question is that of enlarging oneself. That requires being ready to be bowled over by tomorrow's experiences-to remain open to the possibility that the next book you read, or the next person you meet, will change your life. Increased rationality-increased coherence of belief and desire-cannot close itself off from this possibility of disruption without falling victim to cant. You are such a victim insofar as you believe that you already possess criteria for judging the value of any books or people you may encounter-criteria that will provide you with good and sufficient reasons for tucking each of them into some familiar pigeonhole. To avoid such victimization, you must give up one of the dreams of philosophy-the dream of completeness, of the imperturbability attributed by the wise, of the mastery supposedly possessed by those who have, once and for all, achieved completion by achieving enlightenment.

===== "The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"

- -Karl Marx



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list