Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - VA Tech shooting and politics (THIS IS THE THREAD FOR TALK OF "gun control", ETC)

roachboy · 04-18-2007, 11:42 AM

god given?
what are you talking about?
when that phrase appears, it is an 18th century reference to theories of natural law. since the claims of the american revolution were based on an idea of restoring rights violated by england, the language of natural law served a tactical function.
but the notion of natural law itself is at the very best problematic, based as it is, as it always was, on fundamentally religious committments simply transposed from the register of religion to that of transcendent categories (limits, prohibitions and their opposite)...but without the category of religion behind it, this transposition holds no water. you have a long history of ethics as a branch of philo that tracks the problems encountered when western folk noticed that there was a world beyond them that could not simply be understood as less than them, or as repetitions of their history and so trapped in some eternal childhood waiting around for the heroic western white folk to rescue them and show then the way to adulthood--which was of course embodied in the euro-americans themselves. the notion of natural law became untenable. this still freaks out some ethicists so deontology persists, but is mostly a space ccupied by religious thinkers who for whatever reason continue to blur their religious committments and philosophical work into each other. meanwhile, in most other areas of ethics, folk have worked out the obvious: that constructions on the order of natural law were, are and always will be political matters.

there is no natural law: the language of it provided a veneer of legitimation to the constitution itself--but within the constitutional regime, any rights are stipulated by the document itself, they function as rights within that regime because of the status accorded the document itself.
this god character has nothing to do with it.

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aside, added: smooth---i wish you'd reconsider what you say about your participation here in your last post. for what it's worth, i think this is a better more interesting place because you play about in it as well--your views are consistently interesting and thoughtful---if folk are bothered by the style in which they are sometimes presented--well---in my view anyway---fuck em.

04-18-2007, 11:42 AM	#220 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	god given? what are you talking about? when that phrase appears, it is an 18th century reference to theories of natural law. since the claims of the american revolution were based on an idea of restoring rights violated by england, the language of natural law served a tactical function. but the notion of natural law itself is at the very best problematic, based as it is, as it always was, on fundamentally religious committments simply transposed from the register of religion to that of transcendent categories (limits, prohibitions and their opposite)...but without the category of religion behind it, this transposition holds no water. you have a long history of ethics as a branch of philo that tracks the problems encountered when western folk noticed that there was a world beyond them that could not simply be understood as less than them, or as repetitions of their history and so trapped in some eternal childhood waiting around for the heroic western white folk to rescue them and show then the way to adulthood--which was of course embodied in the euro-americans themselves. the notion of natural law became untenable. this still freaks out some ethicists so deontology persists, but is mostly a space ccupied by religious thinkers who for whatever reason continue to blur their religious committments and philosophical work into each other. meanwhile, in most other areas of ethics, folk have worked out the obvious: that constructions on the order of natural law were, are and always will be political matters. there is no natural law: the language of it provided a veneer of legitimation to the constitution itself--but within the constitutional regime, any rights are stipulated by the document itself, they function as rights within that regime because of the status accorded the document itself. this god character has nothing to do with it. =================================================== aside, added: smooth---i wish you'd reconsider what you say about your participation here in your last post. for what it's worth, i think this is a better more interesting place because you play about in it as well--your views are consistently interesting and thoughtful---if folk are bothered by the style in which they are sometimes presented--well---in my view anyway---fuck em. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 04-18-2007 at 11:49 AM..