[p2p-research] [ME-09] [OK] Philosophical Underpinnings of the Importance of Collaboration

[Suresh Fernando]

See below.

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 9:00 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> are you familiar with critical realism .. the only tenable form of realism
> I think .. worth investigating ...
>

No - will check out.

>
> my opinion is that a focus on the commonality of values around concrete
> objectives is a sufficient condition for joint approaches, independently of
> the full metaphysics of the persons involved ..
>

Sure... I was just trying to provide some rationale for my motivation.

>
> I would also like to choose to see moral realism and moral relativism as
> polarities ... it's not difficult to see widely contradictory moral values
> and opinions (gay marriage comes to mind as an example, or honour killings,
> in some countries it's morally acceptable to attack unfaithful women with
> acid, in thailand it's morally acceptable for females to cut male genitalia
> of unfaithful husbands), while it is also possible to come to certain moral
> agreements across cultures and civilisations; holding on to both the
> universal and particular, to the common and to the individual, seems to be
> the challenge.
>

This is what I am challenging. I am saying that some actions are right and
others are wrong (period) and the basis for this distinction rests on
scientific methodology which, as far as I am concerned, is the only rational
paradigm of truth. Of course others, religious zealots of all flavoursm for
example, will have other paradigms of truth. The basis for what is
right/wrong will be related to survival (species, individual...).

This is also why not dealing with climate change drives me crazy... I think
it's morally wrong.

I am not claiming that science has advanced to the point where we know what
these right actions are, however. My claim is that it is possible.



> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Suresh Fernando <
> suresh at radical-inclusion.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey Folks,
>>
>> In case you need some bed time reading ;-)
>>
>> When I say that I believe that we can make this world a better place, and
>> that we should be sufficiently motivated to do so, I say this because I am
>> what would be termed a moral realist.<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-realism/>This is to say that I am of the opinion that there are certain actions that
>> are *objectively *right and hence that we ought to do them. What those
>> are exactly is another story ;-). This view is to be contrasted with moral
>> relativism <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-relativism/>.
>>
>> The sense in which we can come to know that certain actions are *right*is a position grounded in a transcendentally
>> idealistic <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_idealism> view on
>> the structure of knowledge that contrasts with a scientifically realistic
>> <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/>perspective, and
>> is outlined in a paper that I wrote entitled The Visibility of Moral
>> Facts <http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc4gbgsj_208cg9z5qc5>.
>>
>> I also believe that right action is intrinsically tied to the relationship
>> between our reflexive (self conscious) nature and our *survival within
>> communities*. I advance an argument to this effect in a paper entitled The
>> Structure of Identity.<http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc4gbgsj_900fjd2xmcz>
>>
>> Hence, for me, there are certain things as rational thinking beings that
>> we ought to do (even if we don't as a species know what they are) and there
>> is a connection between what they are and community.
>>
>> If you can make the connection between community and collaboration, you
>> can get a better idea for why developing collaborative frameworks and
>> processes is vitally important for me.
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, my musings tell me nothing about what those right actions
>> actually are...  ;-)
>>
>> --
>> Suresh Fernando
>> WEBSITE: http://radical-inclusion.com
>> WEBSITE: http://wiki.openkollab.com
>> BLOG: http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com
>> TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sureshf
>> FACEBOOK: facebook.com/suresh.fernando
>> 604-889-8167
>>
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>
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-- 
Suresh Fernando
WEBSITE: http://radical-inclusion.com
WEBSITE: http://wiki.openkollab.com
BLOG: http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sureshf
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/suresh.fernando
604-889-8167
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