Miles:
If you don't like the sociological/Rorty claim that the standards of validity and truth are socially created, why do you trust the masses? Couldn't they create a social consensus that is based on principles and values that contradict the Enlightenment reasoning we cherish?
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Of course the "masses" could and do create anti-enlightenment consensuses. You don't have to read Mill and Tocqueville to find that out. All you have to do is live in America. I grew up in the South, for Chrissake. Literally, for Chrissake, that is. I don't see how the sociological claim that standards for validity or truth are socially created, whatever that might mean, is any help at all in dealing with that problem, btw. It's not like it makes me feel any better about the tyranny of the majority if their standards are right for them by definition or something like that.
Why do I trust the "masses"? Well, I guess I trust democracy, by which I mean liberal democracy, a democracy with strong civil rights and liberties protections enforced against the winds of public opinion by an independent judiciary (sorry, Nathan), because there is no remorely plausible alternative. Rule by a bevvy of Platonic Guardians and Philosophers-Kings isn't likely to be an improvement for obviosu reasons; I don't believe in benevolent dictatorships or single-party rule, so liberal democracy is what we got. I am not sure what this is a problem.
To underline the Rawlsian point I made in an earlier post: the core thing about liberalism is that being rightr doesn't decide the matter. You have to be procedurally correct too, and in fast, procedural correctness trumps. The people have a right to make mistakes, terrible mistakes, and to be desperately wrong. And we left wing lunatics have a duty, which can only be based on the fact that we really are right, to fight them when they are wrong, and try to change the democratic consensus. What else is there to do or say?
jks
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