|
8216
|
Deconstruction is not neutral; it intervenes [Derrida]
|
|
Full Idea:
Deconstruction, I have insisted, is not neutral. It intervenes.
|
|
From:
Jacques Derrida (Positions [1971], p.76)
|
|
A reaction:
This, I think, is because there is in Derrida, as in most French philosophers, a strong streak of Marxism, and a desire to change the world, rather than merely understanding it. Idea 8213 shows the sort of thing he wants to change.
|
|
8213
|
I try to analyse certain verbal concepts which block and confuse the dialectical process [Derrida]
|
|
Full Idea:
I have tried to analyse certain marks in writing which are undecidables, false verbal properties, which inhabit philosophical opposition, resisting and disorganising it, without ever constituting a third term, withour ever leaving room for a solution.
|
|
From:
Jacques Derrida (Positions [1971], p.40)
|
|
A reaction:
[I have simplified his sentence!] Much of Derrida seems to be a commentary on the Hegelian dialectic, and the project is presumably to figure out why philosophy is not advancing in the way we would like. Interesting...
|
|
22450
|
If moral systems can't judge other moral systems, then moral relativism is true [Williams,B, by Foot]
|
|
Full Idea:
If some societies with divergent moral systems merely confront each other, having no use for the assertion that their own systems are true and the others false except to mark the system to which they adhere, then relativism is a true theory of morality.
|
|
From:
report of Bernard Williams (The Truth in Relativism [1974]) by Philippa Foot - Moral Relativism p.3
|
|
A reaction:
'Having no use for' an assertion is not the same as the assertion being impossible. Some liberal cultures refuse to criticise others because their highest value is tolerance, even when the target culture wholly contradicts the critics' other values.
|
|
7903
|
The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
|
|
Full Idea:
The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
|
|
From:
Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
|
|
A reaction:
What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').
|