history&community
some things we take for granted
historical inquiry and establishing a sense of community are both on my list of worthy goals (oh what a list!), and near the top at that. both goals have been the recent focus of my philosophical studies in various contexts. one of the trends in contemporary philosophy is in acknowledging the impossibility of seeing the world from a "god's eye view." that is to say that we can only understand the world through our own human eyes, and there are certain filters through which human eyes must inevitably gaze. the most evident of these filters are our history and language, our culture and tradition. these are what gadamer calls the "prejudices of mankind." human understanding is sometimes thought of as the ability to connect present interactions with past experiences... what then would human knowledge be without the careful open-minded examination of our own shared history?
community solidarity is another important concept, one that post-modernist richard rorty values more than any other. its easy to see the breakdown of community that has plagued the US more and more - there is no longer such a thing as a "street corner" dialogue. i think rorty's goal in using the idea of community and "siblinghood" (fraternity is no longer pc i suppose =/) is to bring back the notion of Truth to human terms, and morality to human beliefs. what meaning has scientific or moral truths if not the continuing progress of humankind, what does it mean to become better if not better people?
in short: new contributions in the study of history & the project of advancing a growing sense of community = worthy goals.
historical inquiry and establishing a sense of community are both on my list of worthy goals (oh what a list!), and near the top at that. both goals have been the recent focus of my philosophical studies in various contexts. one of the trends in contemporary philosophy is in acknowledging the impossibility of seeing the world from a "god's eye view." that is to say that we can only understand the world through our own human eyes, and there are certain filters through which human eyes must inevitably gaze. the most evident of these filters are our history and language, our culture and tradition. these are what gadamer calls the "prejudices of mankind." human understanding is sometimes thought of as the ability to connect present interactions with past experiences... what then would human knowledge be without the careful open-minded examination of our own shared history?
community solidarity is another important concept, one that post-modernist richard rorty values more than any other. its easy to see the breakdown of community that has plagued the US more and more - there is no longer such a thing as a "street corner" dialogue. i think rorty's goal in using the idea of community and "siblinghood" (fraternity is no longer pc i suppose =/) is to bring back the notion of Truth to human terms, and morality to human beliefs. what meaning has scientific or moral truths if not the continuing progress of humankind, what does it mean to become better if not better people?
in short: new contributions in the study of history & the project of advancing a growing sense of community = worthy goals.
posted by Andrew @ 8:04 PM
2 Comments:
At 5:57 PM,
Jon Benignus said…
I like what you have to say about community. I used to know all of my neighbors, but now I hardly know any of them. It is this sense of isolation that made me want to start this blog.
Also as I learn more about the profession of history I come across more and more post-modernist historians whose believe in the relativity of truth and facts borders on nihilism. I believe that there are such things as objective truths, but the importance of such truths is dependent upon the community that the historian serves. Hopefully this little community will grow a little more on the Internet serve us all.
BTW, what are some of you other worthy goals?
At 8:05 PM,
Andrew said…
other worthy goals: make the perfect batch of stir-fry, learn things, dance the dance of life!
ok so i dont actually have a list already thought out, but you get the idea.
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