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Politics : The Left Wing Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (3962)	2/10/2001 2:23:49 PM
From: Constant Reader	Respond to of 6089

Reminds me of a friend who thought nothing about paying Bank of America $2 for withdrawing $20 from another bank's ATM machine. 10 times a month, or more. I asked why he didn't just withdraw $200 and pay $2 instead of $20. He said he didn't need $200 - just $20.

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (3962)	2/12/2001 7:38:08 PM
From: St_Bill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6089

In a recent PM you had asked me some general and a couple of specific questions about philosophy. I thought it might be fun to respond in public? You had asked me about the practical value of philosophy and I had explained that it was as practical as can be. You wondered what I meant so here's a little more detail: Western philosophy is all about questions of meaning and justification: what do we mean by the things we say and what justifies BELIEF in the things we say? Regarding questions of meaning: The truth of any statement depends, in part, on what it means. Statements are made of words. Words are concepts and it's helpful to think of concepts as nets -- catching some objects or processes or whatever while letting others go. For example, "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup." will be true or false depending on what we mean by "Fly" -- what do these things look like, how many wings and legs and so on -- all the requirements for what it takes to be a fly. "IN" is a simple concept but hard to define. "In" can mean surrounded by, on top of, uncomfortably close to and more. Simple concepts can be suprising pains in the ass to define. "Soup" of course is yet another matter. Some decent cooks may violently dispute what it takes to be soup. Most might reject Campbell's as a genuine instantiation of soup-ness. But you get the idea. The truth of any statement will in part hinge on what that statement actually means. Usually these meanings are clear enough. Sometimes they aren't. Meanings always have enormous practical payoffs. If you don't know what counts as a bathroom you could be in big trouble. But less flippantly look at the concept "human being". If I point to some lump of mud in the corner and say,"That's a human being." I've obviously said something false. But then what if I point to the ultrasound image of a fetus and say "This is an ultrasound image of a human being." Have I said something true or false? This depends, in part, on what we mean by "human being" -- what ARE all of the requirements are for basic human being-hood contained in the concept -- the net, "human-being"? Tough question and here of course there is disagreement, the resolution of which for many has enormous practical payoffs -- matters of life and death. And where do the meanings come from? US, obviously. But then can't everybody have there own personal, private meanings of "human being" or whatever? NO, not so obviously. But resolving questions of meaning in fairly rational, orderly and very mindful ways is something philosophy teaches us how to do. It isn't easy but it is a very useful skill and it pisses me off that generally it's not a required course, though I must say that I was heartened by the fact that business majors at the University where I taught were required to take an Ethics course. But the upshot of all this again is that every move you make and breath you take is a result of what you believe. And it's worth the time, from time to time, to make sure you understand what those beliefs mean. If you don't know what you mean, then you don't know whether your'e believing the truth. On to justification: big subject. Reasons why you believe whatever you believe. In philosophy this subject is called epistemology -- which I thought I'd explain by way of answering some of your specific questions about ethics. But maybe I've gone on long enough for now and will save that for later?