tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post3817704567064602844..comments2023-10-30T12:26:15.822+01:00Comments on Research as a Second Language: Prose and ProgressThomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-78064305494407170822015-04-17T20:27:25.601+02:002015-04-17T20:27:25.601+02:00You seem to be right. And you're obviously rig...You seem to be right. And you're obviously right about the current state of the mortgage institution. <br /><br />One perhaps somewhat sophistic caveat though. Couldn't it rather be like this:<br /><br />When we are imagining that "marriage affords no particular liberties, no particular advantage to lovers who would be together", aren't we still imagining them to be living in (a series of) marriage-*like* circumstances? E.g. sometimes living together and not indulding in inordinate amounts of promuscuity (which is just like marriage!)? Aren't we imagining something along those lines? Just without the lovers in fact being married. [But that is of no importance: Pangrammatically, marriage is an act, not a fact.]<br /><br />Equally, I could perhaps imagine "a world in which the essay does not make us better able to express ourselves", but then I'd just be imagining us writing in an essay-*like* form instead...Presskornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03480116067878605339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-63479100747801300832015-04-16T15:33:38.992+02:002015-04-16T15:33:38.992+02:00Okay. I'll agree on marriage (reluctantly). It...Okay. I'll agree on marriage (reluctantly). It may still be the best way to have children (and raise them to the age of ten or so), all things considered, and under the current conditions (which the revolution would of course replace). The mortgage racket, by contrast, strikes me as at least in some stage of decay. In any case, to oppress an institution will certainly need to have normative content.<br /><br />Bringing it back to our topic, we can imagine a world in which marriage affords no particular liberties, no particular advantage to lovers who would be together. But I'm not sure I can imagine a world in which the essay does not make us better able to express ourselves about the facts as they are.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-46333036138860534962015-04-16T13:32:54.405+02:002015-04-16T13:32:54.405+02:00Well, I am able to smile at it as well. We're...Well, I am able to smile at it as well. We're off-topic, but as you will remember, my at least official position on marriage etc. is Hegelian: I.e. it is a temptation, but a premature one, to assume by default that such societal institutions are rotten and devoid of genuine normative content.Presskornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03480116067878605339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-36429243036190308902015-04-15T16:41:48.938+02:002015-04-15T16:41:48.938+02:00I'm romantic enough to smirk a little at your ...I'm romantic enough to smirk a little at your invocation of the "positive freedom" to "take out a mortgage ... get married etc.". But I get your point. Certainly, the <i>ability</i> to write orderly prose is useful in the exercise of your practical liberties. Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-49746065352832283572015-04-15T13:19:41.272+02:002015-04-15T13:19:41.272+02:00I am going to try to “out-pro-prose” you on this o...I am going to try to “out-pro-prose” you on this one…. Commitment to culture IS freedom. People yearning for poetry fear the decrease in negative liberty that result from writing in orderly prose. What they miss is the massive increase in *positive* freedom that one gains in such commitments. Consider Brandom’s (Reason in Philosophy, p.59) reading of Kant’s 'Was ist Aufklarung?' and its guiding notion of majority [Mündigkeit]: When a young person gains legal majority and thus achieves Mündigkeit, she is subjected to all sorts of new norms and a resulting decrease in negative liberty. But the ability to bind and subject herself to the constraints of these legal norms also means a huge increase in positive freedom: she can now take out a mortgage, start a business, get married etc. Something similarly, ideally at least, goes for regular training and commitment to orderly prose conceived of as remarks in an already existing scientific conversation: it means a massive increase in the positive freedom of your writing. Presskornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03480116067878605339noreply@blogger.com