Major changes in outlook have a philosophical dimension without which they cannot be fully grasped. That dimension profoundly affects our actions because. It determines the setting in which we believe we are acting. The goals we think make sense. And our attitude toward others. However abstract this aspect of the matter may be. Understanding it is an essential part of understanding modern political life.
The philosophical basis of anti-racism
As of liberalism and modernity generally. might be described as value relativism [24] or as an overly technological understanding of rationality.[25] It can also be described usefully as the denial of whatever transcends men’s particular job function email list purposes. As we shall see. Such a denial implies that we create distinctions rather than find them. And that they matter only to the extent we make them matter. It brings about a setting in which stable character means paralysis. difference means enmity. and classification is an act of aggression. In such a setting anti-racism is inevitable.
A world without transcendence
Lacks universal qualities that transcend particulars. Universals like redness or goodness refer as much to things that might exist as those that do exist. Since universals are not wholly contained in our experience in the way particular red or good things are. to deny whatever exceeds our experience is to deny them. It is nonetheless what newsletters the rest of the team that is subscribed difficult to dispense with universals. Although not contained within experience. they order it and make it possible for us to comprehend and deal with it. We understand the world by calling things by names such as “red” and “good” that could also apply to other things. past. present and future. Without them. we are left with an inexplicable world of unbridgeable differences.
Moderns are nonetheless uncomfortable
Denying transcendence and thus universals. as moderns do. makes classification arbitrary. If things do not have stable natures that precede our purposes. if the difference (for example) between the sexes is just a social construction sms to data that can as well be deconstructed. then classifying is simply an exercise of the will of the classifier. and to be defined is to be subjected to that will. Those who reject transcendence therefore insist on escaping definition as the necessary ground of their dignity. and part of escaping definition is throwing off ethnicity.