Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism'' and 'Of the standard of taste'

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8 ideas

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude

18552	Forget about beauty; just concentrate on the virtues of delicacy and discernment admired in critics [Hume, by Scruton]
	Full Idea: Hume suggest we get away from the fruitless discussion of beauty, and simply concentrate on the qualities we admire, and ought to admire, in a critic - qualities such as delicacy and discernment.
	From: report of David Hume (Of the standard of taste [1757]) by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 6
	A reaction: We might wonder how you can admire 'discernment' without some view of the thing being discern, which is in danger of being beauty. How do you judge delicacy and discernment without judging the objects of the critic's taste? Mere authority?

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 3. Taste

6608	Strong sense, delicate sentiment, practice, comparisons, and lack of prejudice, are all needed for good taste [Hume]
	Full Idea: Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to the valuable character of having 'taste'.
	From: David Hume (Of the standard of taste [1757]), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.6
	A reaction: I agree entirely with this, but then I am a very politically incorrect elitist when it comes to taste. It just seems screamingly obvious that professional wine-tasters have a better appreciation of wine than me, and so on for the rest of the arts.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues

7903	The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
	Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
	From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
	A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / a. Liberalism basics

22808	Liberalism is minimal government, or individual rights, or equality [Avineri/De-Shalit]
	Full Idea: Liberalism has been defended as a theory of minimal government, or as a theory of basic individual rights, or as an egalitarian philosophy.
	From: Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A (Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' [1992], §5)
	A reaction: Minimal government tends towards anarchist liberalism, but then what grounds the right to be free of government? Presumably any sensible theory of rights has to be egalitarian. What could ground unequal rights?

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / g. Liberalism critique

22803	Can individualist theories justify an obligation to fight in a war? [Avineri/De-Shalit]
	Full Idea: How can an individualist theory justify an obligation to fight for the state in the case of war?
	From: Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A (Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' [1992], §4)
	A reaction: The most dramatic example of obliging citizens to contribute to the state, the notable other case being taxes. Some imagined ancient 'social contract' doesn't seem sufficient for later generations. Does being naturally sociable create such obligations?

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism

22804	Autonomy is better achieved within a community [Avineri/De-Shalit]
	Full Idea: Communitarians often argue that personal autonomy is better achieved within the community.
	From: Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A (Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' [1992], §4)
	A reaction: Hegel is the source of this view. The simplest version of the point is that autonomy can only be asserted if a person has rights, which can be asserted and defended, and only a society can provide that. That is plausible.

22806	Communitarians avoid oppression for the common good, by means of small mediating communities [Avineri/De-Shalit]
	Full Idea: Because of the mediating structures of small communities, communitarians are less fearful [than liberals] of the emergence of an oppressive government as a result of the politics of the common good.
	From: Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A (Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' [1992], §5)
	A reaction: A politics of the common good has an obvious implicit conservatism because the central consensus is always likely to disapprove of errant individuals, of all sorts. Only individual rights can block an oppressive government.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / b. Against communitarianism

22807	If our values are given to us by society then we have no grounds to criticise them [Avineri/De-Shalit]
	Full Idea: If communitarians are right that we are not free to choose, but rather that our values are determined by our community, the individualists say, then there is no reason to criticise the values of one's society.
	From: Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A (Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' [1992], §5)
	A reaction: This is an obvious challenge, but if one's concept of community is a forum for free debate then it can be overcome. There is no avoiding the fact, though, that a good community always needs a high degree of consensus.