Analytical philosophy in a nutshell:
1) Deny the primacy of consciousness in the world; and
2) Now notice how hard it is to explain everything, and exert great efforts to come up with ingenious way to avoid admitting 1) was an error.

Analytical philosophy in a nutshell:
1) Deny the primacy of consciousness in the world; and
2) Now notice how hard it is to explain everything, and exert great efforts to come up with ingenious way to avoid admitting 1) was an error.

You quote Rorty as claiming that the grammaticality of a sentence is rarely a matter of doubt, while moral dilemmas leave us uncertain. But he may not be comparing equivalent sets.

There are huge numbers of sentences whose grammaticality is in doubt. A frequently-studied instance is the so-called “parasitic gap”, such as “Which paper did you read before you filed?” “What kind of person do you like whenever you meet?” and similar. Some people hate them, some people see nothing wrong with them, others are left in some kind of post-koan Zen state. These grammaticality judgements may be analogous to difficult moral quandaries.

On the other hand, depending on how you define “moral dilemma”, there may be huge numbers of them that are easy to decide and hence are not usually counted as dilemmas. For example, should I smack my mother for no reason? The answer is obvious to anyone, as obvious as the grammaticality of “The dog is happy”. These easy moral issues, which we solve quickly and unconsciously every day, may be analogous to standard grammatical sentences, which we produce quickly and unconsciously every day.

Note, too, that these easy moral questions are frequently mastered by the age of five to seven years, the same age that marks the mastery of the basics of one’s native tongue. My seven-year-old knows that one never says “dog the happy is”, and that stealing is morally wrong, regardless of whether you get caught. These laws of grammaticality and morality are unknown to most of the animal kingdom, regardless of how long they live. So Rorty’s assertion that moral codes are not assimilated especially quickly is also on shaky ground.

You quote Rorty as claiming that the grammaticality of a sentence is rarely a matter of doubt, while moral dilemmas leave us uncertain. But he may not be comparing equivalent sets.

There are huge numbers of sentences whose grammaticality is in doubt. A frequently-studied instance is the so-called “parasitic gap”, such as “Which paper did you read before you filed?” “What kind of person do you like whenever you meet?” and similar. Some people hate them, some people see nothing wrong with them, others are left in some kind of post-koan Zen state. These grammaticality judgements may be analogous to difficult moral quandaries.

On the other hand, depending on how you define “moral dilemma”, there may be huge numbers of them that are easy to decide and hence are not usually counted as dilemmas. For example, should I smack my mother for no reason? The answer is obvious to anyone, as obvious as the grammaticality of “The dog is happy”. These easy moral issues, which we solve quickly and unconsciously every day, may be analogous to standard grammatical sentences, which we produce quickly and unconsciously every day.

Note, too, that these easy moral questions are frequently mastered by the age of five to seven years, the same age that marks the mastery of the basics of one’s native tongue. My seven-year-old knows that one never says “dog the happy is”, and that stealing is morally wrong, regardless of whether you get caught. These laws of grammaticality and morality are unknown to most of the animal kingdom, regardless of how long they live. So Rorty’s assertion that moral codes are not assimilated especially quickly is also on shaky ground.

Rorty wrote : “Nazi parents found it easy to turn their children into conscientious little monsters.” He does not describe how nazi parents taught their children to be cruel with Jews. How did they accomplish such training ? By brainwashing as Pavlov…

Heterodox analytic philosopher Richard Rorty reviewed psychologist Marc Hauser’s The Moral Mind last Friday in the ”Herald Tribune”. Rorty’s review is quite a disdainful piece of Hauser-bashing; yet Rorty does not fail to provide arguments agai…

It is true that every setting of the linguistic parameters produces a working language. And it is true that most linguists believe that no language is “better” than any other. But the second statement does not follow from the first!

One could easily imagine a case in which different parameter settings generate languages that are wildly different in terms of communicative efficiency, lyricism, their efficacy as a tool to help men get women into bed, or whatever scale you want to measure them with.

Linguists have found through OBSERVATION that all languages are about the same in terms of communicative efficiency and complexity. Chomsky’s “Principles and Parameters” approach does NOT explain this!

One could try to explain this observational fact via evolutionary pressure, but that is not a view that Chomsky would endorse. He is, in fact, quite opposed to evolutionary just-so stories.

What does this mean for morality? It means you could easily have a generative, parameter-setting approach to morality, AND have some of the generated moralities be awful and others be great. The purpose of the parameters model would not be to judge moralities, but to predict the set of moralities that are possible for humans to hold. That, I think, would be a very worthy goal.

It is true that every setting of the linguistic parameters produces a working language. And it is true that most linguists believe that no language is “better” than any other. But the second statement does not follow from the first!

One could easily imagine a case in which different parameter settings generate languages that are wildly different in terms of communicative efficiency, lyricism, their efficacy as a tool to help men get women into bed, or whatever scale you want to measure them with.

Linguists have found through OBSERVATION that all languages are about the same in terms of communicative efficiency and complexity. Chomsky’s “Principles and Parameters” approach does NOT explain this!

One could try to explain this observational fact via evolutionary pressure, but that is not a view that Chomsky would endorse. He is, in fact, quite opposed to evolutionary just-so stories.

What does this mean for morality? It means you could easily have a generative, parameter-setting approach to morality, AND have some of the generated moralities be awful and others be great. The purpose of the parameters model would not be to judge moralities, but to predict the set of moralities that are possible for humans to hold. That, I think, would be a very worthy goal.

Well, that covers a lot of philosophy, so I’m hesitant to reply in detail. But, briefly.

About what I think, you did pretty well:

1) Not sure what you have in mind, but probably.
2) A kind of of non-essentialist Wittgensteinian/Kripkean combinatorialism will do.
3) There are no non-natural properties, so yes.
4) Yes.
5) No. Naturalizaing epistemology does remove norms, if you think of them as transcendental or immanent. Epistemic norms, like other norms, are either objective in an instrumental sense (if you’re aiming at truth, then think this way) or conventional.
6) What needs to be reduced?
7) Some kind of complicated story about causal chains of designation. I have a weird naturalized trope theory of laws.
9) Or the buddhists are right.

Well, that covers a lot of philosophy, so I’m hesitant to reply in detail. But, briefly.

About what I think, you did pretty well:

1) Not sure what you have in mind, but probably.
2) A kind of of non-essentialist Wittgensteinian/Kripkean combinatorialism will do.
3) There are no non-natural properties, so yes.
4) Yes.
5) No. Naturalizaing epistemology does remove norms, if you think of them as transcendental or immanent. Epistemic norms, like other norms, are either objective in an instrumental sense (if you’re aiming at truth, then think this way) or conventional.
6) What needs to be reduced?
7) Some kind of complicated story about causal chains of designation. I have a weird naturalized trope theory of laws.
9) Or the buddhists are right.