Muhammad Betz (mbetz@sosu.edu)
Sat, 2 Oct 1999 08:50:46 +1200
From: Muhammad Betz <mbetz@sosu.edu> Subject: Culture Now Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 08:50:46 +1200
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Can't human engagement with artefacts to secure production of life needs and
social interaction be described in terms of human action without recourse to
the concept "nature" and certainly its "ordering" ( in most technological
systems inevitably we increase entropy<< this is meant as a bit of a joke...
irony is hard in email>>).
-Martin Owen
I choose to enter the "culture" discussion on this note (reminder: the
official start date for "Flexible Learning" is October 4). I am obliged to
agree with Martin on his points.
I have noticed for several days now the "Catcher in the Rye" overtones to
the discussion on culture and TRUTH. In the current setting of logical
positivism in the legal sense and economic positivism (alluding to the
upcoming discussion) and other types of positivism, I recall John Keat's
term, "negative capability" as the attribute most needed by the human being:
that is the capacity to exist without absolute truths. Today we are limited
to facts, not truth, and today's facts may prove to be false tomorrow
(speaking of entropy!).
Can human artifacts to secure production of life needs and social
interaction be described in terms of human actions with recourse...? It
seems to me that we are led at this point to the concept of Democracy: i.e.,
majority rule with minority rights, as our culture. In a democratic,
pluralistic culture, such as the prevailing Western culture, it is true
that, in deference to the views of the many, the absence of absolute truths
and the dynamic of changing facts, that a wide spectrum of
moral/philosophical points of view must be accommodated. However, as an
individual, I can hold to my own "absolute truths" because I have my rights
protected. For this reason, I can co-exist with the diversity that the
culture maintains.
I refer to what I think a seminal book, by Italian Philosopher/Statesman,
Norberto Bobbio, "The Future of Democracy: A Defense of the Rules of the
Game (1987), in which the plight of the Western Culture devolves into a
philosophical examination of the nature of Democracy.
Regards,
Muhammad B.
Muhammad Betz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Educational Instruction & Leadership
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
(580)924-0121 x2326
fax:(580)920-5708
mbetz@sosu.edu
www.sosu.edu/ebs/eil/betz
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