Re: minds of our own?
Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Fri, 11 Jul 97 13:53:10 EDT
When it comes to persons-in-cultures, and organisms-in-ecosystems,
it hardly seems worth the effort to try to maintain the traditional
metaphysics. But there are perhaps good reasons for our Desire to
do so, arising from our cultural notions about self-hood, and
the connections these have to our codes of moral (and legal)
individual responsibility. My other argument, about nationalisms vs.
a greater sense of ecological co-responsibility, suggests to me
that cultural beliefs that worked in the past may not continue
to work in the future, and I certainly believe that metaphysics
is primarily a deep rationalization of the principles of moral
order and social control in a society. If I say no to non-relational
objects and non-relational properties, it will ultimately be
because they are not supportive of the kind of moral-cultural
worldviews that our species may need.
JAY.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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