[lbo-talk] Re: Democracy and Constitutional Rights

[snit snat]

At 02:14 AM 8/15/2004, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>Hope you are having fun with your hurricane. ;->
>
>The point about the need for shared beliefs as a precondition of 
>communication is right of course -- a philosopher of my background gets 
>the same thought from Davidson and Rorty (and I wrote an M.Phil thesis on 
>what it does and doesn't mean). But that's not much help in distinguishing 
>between groups. After all, leaving aside language abilities (or with the 
>aid of translators) both Judge Posner and I can communicate with, dispute 
>with, discuss with, people of very different backgrounds. Christian or 
>Islamic fundamentalists, for example. Hard core Communists. Ayn Randroids. 
>Argentineans. Teenagers. Admirers of rap music. The extremely wealthy. 
>Urban gangbangers. South Dakota farmers. Columbian peasants. Wtc. So both 
>of us share a lot of beliefs in common with all those people too. In fact, 
>if we didn't, it's not altogether clear now we would recognize them as 
>people at all. So surely the thing that makesa  group a group in the 
>relevant sense can't be that you ca! n't communicate across groups because 
>they share no beliefs in common. Don't you think?

i wasn't intervening to answer the question b/c I don't think Miles should 
have taken it seriously to begin with.

Kelley


>K

"We're in a fucking stagmire."

       --Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'