Posted by Zoe on May 12, 1997 at 18:23:22:
In reply to Re: Identity and Principles - Alternative Realities Again, II posted by Kali on May 05, 1997 at 02:30:44
I think we're talking past each other at
this point. Of course not all things that
seemed self-evident at some point in our
lives are self-evident now. Some merely
seemed self-evident because we grew up with
them, having accepted them on authority when
we were young. I chose the example I did,
the value of kindness to others in need,
intentionally, as a principle that isn't any
less self-evident now than it was when first
introduced to us, and which didn't need
experience and a great deal of reflection to
make our own. As I wrote above, it is too
obvious to question, except theoretically.
What I am trying to say is that some
values/principles can be accepted
immediately as self-evident. They become our
own without our having to reflect or
experience them, but they are no less our
own than those we had to grow into. I can
give an autobiographical example if
necessary. "Do I make myself sufficiently
obscure?" to borrow the words of one of my
college professors.
] Lots of things seem self-evident until we
experience the wider, real world. For
example...as a child, everything my parents
said seemed to make sense. It all had a
logic to it - and internal logic. Now that
I'm older, and have had time and experience
enough to come up with an independent world
view, I realize that my parents, while not
necessarily wrong, didn't have a monopoly on
logical reality or on life-experience.
] ] ] ] Second of all, yes, identity is
derived from one's own principles, but the
operative words here are own
principles. . . But the PROBLEM I still
have with the situation is that Fanny isn't
really "right," she is lucky. There is
really no skill of experience in her
"insight." She plagiarised the fruit of
another's moral education . . .
]
] ]
] ] I sent the first part of the message
without finishing it because my session was
about to be terminated. Let me see if I can
finish this quickly.
] ] Do you think it impossible that Fanny
could have found Edmund's principles
self-evident, and so made them her own? I
suppose you must, but I'm not so sure. I'm
not rereading MP right now, but I do know
that when I've read it in the past, Fanny's
morality has never struck me as something
external to her. I do find her rather
passive-aggressive, but I don't know if I've
gotten that from the book or the BBC
adaptation.
]
] ________
________
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