File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2003/bhaskar.0307, message 22


Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:45:48 +0100
From: Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: BHA: moral world


"Goatcher, Jeffrey" <jeffrey.goatcher-AT-ntu.ac.uk> writes

>the moralISED aspect, whcih seems similar to
>Colliers idea of a transitve moral realm [in Being & Worth]. This would be
>the particular moraities [or amoralities] of current societies, but what
>of the intransitive morality? are we not also born into or with such a
>foundation?

The crucial thing to grasp I think is that we inhabit a world that is 
both transitive and intransitive (has these as dimensions)--a world of 
systematic bipolarity or duality. In such a world, things are 
existentially interdependent but essentially distinct. We can switch 
from one to the other (see the notion of 'perspectival switch' in DPF) 
or referentially detach our transitive world or activities and view it 
under the aspect of intransitivity, critically thinking about it etc. 
This is what is perhaps above all distinctively human about us as 
compared with other animals.

The TD after all is or corresponds with epistemology (more broadly all 
our activities), and the ID with ontology. In its intransitive aspect, 
epistemology is 'constellationally contained' within ontology. In its 
transitive aspect it is our attempt to know, criticize and change things 
ontological.The ID contains, but also contrasts with, the TD.

My communicating with you now is in the TD (within ontology). Included 
within it is a commitment to truth and understanding as goods, so it's 
inter alia an ethical example of something in the TD. By a valid 
perspectival switch or act of referential detachment, however, I can 
also think about it/ study it, etc in the ID, and so can you. When we 
are 'thrown' into the world, it is always already moralized in the ID; 
we reproduce or change this in our (transitive) activities.

Hope this helps.

Mervyn



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