Re: [xmca] Re: How are "goals" related to "committments"?

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

I think I get the general drift of what you are saying, Larry. But in
general I find
it very difficult to know, other than in particular cases where the
abstractions have
risen to the concrete, what precisely is at issue. I have all sorts of
committments, lots of
them, if I were to step back and examine them, in contradiction with each
other I suspect.
Others post hoc rationalizations.

How does one sort all of this out in a way that helps us make sense of the
issues on the table here at XMCA?

mike

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> A few further thoughts from Mike's article. On the last 2 pages Mike
> explores Bourdieu's notion of habitus and Schweder's notion of
> understanding
> practices as a series of MORALLY enforcable conceptual schemes as capturing
> the notion of "structuration" [Giddens] These various notions of
> practice-in-contexts integrate past experience and a matrix of
> "perceptions"
> "apperceptions" and "actions" which make possible multiple POTENTIAL
> RESPONSES to the world.
> This matrix is IMPLICIT and is "usually" the unexamined background
> assumptions that orient us as wayfarers to move and operate within the
> world as "structured ways of life"
> Taylor's project is to take this basic insight, shared with Bourdieau and
> Schweder, and amplify the notion of "committments" as particular ethical
> "ways of life".  Taylor's book "Sources of the Self" makes clear there are
> multiple "ways of life" [habitus?] that co-exist in a particular historical
> moment and what is central [for Taylor] is the depth of committment to a
> way
> of life [an ethical stance] that orientes the person to dwelling in the
> world.
>
> Larry
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Mike and others
> >
> > Mike, reflecting on your comment that the relevant order of context [as
> > weaving] for analysis depends crucially on the particular tools through
> > which one interacts with the world AND this tool use depends crucially on
> > the GOALS and other constraints on action withIN the permeable changing
> > events of life.  Mike, if one substitutes the word "committments" for the
> > term "goals" does this change the meaning you are pointing towards?
> > The reason I'm asking this question is because of where Charles Taylor
> > locates "committment" within his particular notion of "context" as "ways
> of
> > life".  As I read Taylor, he is pointing to ETHICS [how we "should"
> proceed]
> > as centrally ABOUT committments.  These committments emerge wiithin
> > HISTORICALLY constituted ways of life and it is these "shared"
> committments
> > [which can be implicit, not explicit] as "horizons of understanding"
> which
> > give meaning to practices, events, conduct, etc.  I didn't add the term
> > "situation" to that list because as I'm reading your article "situation"
> can
> > be read to include "committments" and "ways of life" withIN "situations".
> >
> > These committments [within horizons of understanding] can be read as
> > contexts that "surround" in the way Taylor is suggesting Brandom does not
> go
> > far enough in locating the  PARTICULAR ethical committment of "giving and
> > asking for reasons" as a particular historically embedded language game
> > which structures our practices and events [and our institutions]
> > However, is it also possible to locate historically constituted ETHICAL
> > "committments" as  weaving [context] that explores the emergence of
> > committments within the permeable changing events of life.  The emergence
> of
> > "committments" in the day to day intersubjective dialogical,
> INTRA-weavings
> > [not INTER-weavings which suggest the committments PRE-exist].
> >
> > I don't presume to know how context/surrounds" and context/weaves are
> > related but the place of "goals"/"committments" seems to relevant aspects
> of
> > the "situation"/"way of life".
> >
> > Larry
> >
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