Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 05:54:01 -0600 (Central Standard Time) From: Stephen Chilton <schilton-AT-d.umn.edu> Subject: HAB: How do we decide to agree? Maybe I'll find out that I'm just confused for no reason and that there's a simple explanation, but I don't see how to address this problem, so I'm turning to the list for help. As usual, I was thinking about the agreement problem in discourse ethics, and the following question occurred to me without an answer following: As I understand it, (U) and (D) are necessary conditions for a norm to be valid. They call for the agreement of all affected. How does an affected actor decide whether s/he should agree to a proposed norm? Obviously s/he cannot look to other actors' agreement, because the whole point of discourse ethics is to give everyone a voice, and in any case, that simply pushes the question back one step to asking how those others decided they should agree. I'm not aware that H. has provided an answer to this question, though I could well be mistaken. Without further guidance on how to decide, the actors seem thrown back on their moral intuitions alone, an option which I think H. is keen to avoid in order to sustain a cognitivist morality. I'm a little embarrassed to send this out, because my guess is that this is a confusion on my part rather than a gap in discourse ethics. But I'd rather understand than preserve my dignity. Can anyone help me here? Regards to all, Steve ************************************************************* | Stephen Chilton, Associate Professor, Dept of Pol Science | Univ of Minnesota-Duluth / Duluth, MN 55812-2496 / USA | | 218-726-8162/7534 FAX: 726-6386 Home: 724-6833 (home) | www.d.umn.edu/~schilton EMAIL: schilton-AT-mail.d.umn.edu | | "A man who will steal for me will steal from me." | - Theodore Roosevelt [via John Pitzl] ************************************************************* --- from list habermas-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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