[lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sat Sep 4 10:54:01 PDT 2010


On 09/03/2010 09:57 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> Carrol writes:
>
> "For freedom implies a direct and visible linkage between one's real motive and one's action,
> not an indirect and invisible one provided by commodity production and the wage system."
>
> Yes, that's absolutely true. Well said.
>
> Joanna
>

This assumes that we can discern a person's real motives so that we can evaluate the linkage between motives and actions. I know that seems straightforward, but it's a philosophical mare's nest. We can't rely on a person's own account of their motives; the account may be distorted by social pressure, memory distortion, or mendacity. We can't observe their behavior to discern motives; that assumes what we are trying to demonstrate (the alignment of motive and action). We can't rely on the assessment of experts; the predictive validity of psychologist's assessments of motives is in general dismal.

After grappling with this for some years, I came around to Wittgenstein's position: asking "what is that person's real motive?" and making imputations about motives are moves in a language game. There is no referent to the term "motive"; in fact, we talk about people's motives whether or not they "have" them, and that motive-talk has real social effects. The important political question is thus "how do we use motive-talk in our society?" and not "are real motives linked to one's action?"

MIles



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