freecounterpoint: A great piece of political philosophy

Saturday, October 03, 2009

A great piece of political philosophy

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: A little Lakoffite poetic adage for you:

frame your taste
quench your thirst

epistemically displaced as always
yours, A. Leverkuhn; 10/03/2009 9:25 AM
Anonymous said...: I liked this comment:

"In 1787 Thomas Jefferson explained that “the policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.” The Founders were wary of government power because of its coercive nature and its susceptibility to abuse; as George Washington famously wrote, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” "

especially in view of an article on 'global justice' that I was looking at earlier which explained the
chicken-and-egg dilemma of society versus justice: Does society (and all of its attending structures) come into existence because of our individual yearnings for 'justice' and because of intrinsic obligations we own to one another in virtue of being human -or- do we naturally gravitate into social coexistance from which laws, in turn, grow. One specific point that I struck me as
archetypical of what one may call 'liberal' ideology was a comment about Rawls (I'm sorry if it's a bit
out of context):

"Rawls’s profoundly influential idea was simply that there is such a thing as a singular basic structure and that it can be effectively regulated by governance taking the form of laws backed by certain legitimately coercive state institutions. The guiding if implicit assumption in this idea is that states can regulate basic structures through the media of law, policy, and regulation. "

A. Leverkuhn; 10/03/2009 9:55 AM
Mr roT said...: I also liked the Washington quote and the corollaries that the writer gave. Free medicine for thee means a baseball bat for me.

As to Rawls, you must be talking about this:

Life for Columbia students could be hard, however. Mr. Boerner recalls Mr. Obama wrapping himself in a green sleeping bag (seen in this photo Mr. Boerner took) to keep warm when they studied at home. They listened to reggae. Bob Marley. Peter Tosh. Talked philosophy. Theories of justice and John Rawls. Mr. Boerner recalled Mr. Obama joking that he would rather be spending his time pondering Lou Rawls, the singer.

Or am I out of context?; 10/03/2009 11:56 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: To be even more out of context [than Leverkuhn and Rot feared they might be]: Rawls speaking before an audience had the greatest soporific powers I've ever seen [as far as I can remember, before sleep overwhelmed like a drug]. Five hundred listening, most at the start in rapt attention to listen to the wisdom of the master, and all catatonic within 10 minutes.
In retrospect, thinking over how his words swept on and on without opposition or query, I'm not sure it wasn't an intentional rhetorical strategy.; 10/03/2009 1:12 PM
Mr roT said...: I don't like Lou Rawls either. This is much better.; 10/03/2009 1:15 PM
Tecumseh said...: The 1982-83 student directory shows Mr. Obama living in his senior year at Apartment 6A of 339 East 94th Street.

Pretty crummy neighborhood, and kind of far from 116th Street. I was staying in a much better location at the time. Hah!; 10/03/2009 7:28 PM
Mr roT said...: Yeah, but Obie is the POTUS and you clean up after physicists.; 10/03/2009 8:35 PM

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