Intention (was Re: Unhooking famous violinist)

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 4 06:44:18 PST 2003


Yes, you protest too much. If you think you're going to make headway in politics talking about Wittgenstein, God bless ya. I see no point at all in idle speculation about whether common sense psychology with its talk of intentions and the like reproduces, in some unspecified way, unjustified unequalities. It's tome to follow Marx, not Wittgenstein., and by this I meam, when Marx realized that philosophy was largely self-indulgence, he stopped doing it, instead of musing about how to stop doing it, and shifted over to politics and political economy. Go thou and do likewise. We were talking about abortion. jks

--- Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> > Anyway, stop with the metaphysics. It's mere
> entertainment, in fact
> > self-indulgence, and a distraction, sort of the
> mental equivalent of
> > spinning hula hoops. Were talking politics, and
> the metaphysicians are
> > trying very hard to derail the conversation. "But
> first you must say
> > what the meaning of 'is' is." Puuuleeze.
> >
> > jks
> >
>
> I think it's a misconstrual to consider my comments
> "metaphysical",
> unless you think Wittgensteinian analysis of
> "language games"
> is metaphysics (which I hope you don't). I don't
> really care
> whether or not the beetle is in the box (i.e.,
> whether or not
> "intentions" really cause behavior). What I'm
> interested in
> is how the language of intentions plays a crucial
> role in our
> social relations. I agree that I'm not trying to
> generate a
> slogan to rally the masses around abortion on
> demand; however,
> I think a vigilant analysis of what we take for
> granted is
> essential.
>
> The danger with Justin's impatience here is that he
> is trying to
> produce politically efficacious rhetoric to justify
> a social
> practice. Just a question: what if by staying in
> the circle
> of what is political acceptable we reproduce
> ideologies and
> rhetoric that perpetuate economic and social
> inequalities in
> our society? If this isn't a political question, I
> don't know what
> is.
>
> --Am I dodging the question of how to come up with a
> convincing,
> effective "soccer mom" argument in favor of abortion
> rights?
> Yep. As I think more about it, though, I wonder how
> important
> that is. It's not like most people have rationally
> considered all
> the arguments for and against abortion, like a
> diligently trained
> philosopher/scientist, and drawn an objective
> conclusion based
> on logic and evidence. Rather than trying to change
> people's
> minds via argumentation, we should try to reinforce
> social relations
> that maintain abortion as a safe, legal activity.
> Just as a
> change in material reality in the South--integration
> of schools--
> led to a change in consciousness, so that about 90%
> of whites in
> the South now think integrated schools are
> appropriate, I think
> attitudes about abortion will follow from material
> practice. We
> don't need to provide rigorous ethical arguments
> that
> abortion is justifiable; we need to engage in
> political activity
> to expand abortion services in our society.
>
> Again, if this isn't political, I don't know what
> is. (And if it
> isn't clear from this post, I detest idle
> metaphysics even more
> than Justin does. Do I protest too much?)
>
> Miles
>

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