[lbo-talk] Morality and Relativism

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sun Sep 4 10:45:21 PDT 2005


On Sun, 4 Sep 2005, andie nachgeborenen wrote:


> You were the person who mention "needless" syffering"
> being something no rational pertsonal had to take
> account of.

Right there is the problem: you won't be able to find a quote or paraphrase in the archive where I said that, because I didn't! You translated my argument into philosophy-speak, assuming I was making some grand philosophical pronouncement about how a "rational person" should or shouldn't speak. My whole point is that statements like the statement you mistakenly attributed to me above are useless (as is the obverse: "rational people do take account of needless suffering"). I'm sticking to Wittgenstein: behaviors and language only make sense in a specific form of life; it is a fundamental mistake to assume there is something beyond social relations that "ground" morality and behavior.

Miles



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