Hello,
One suggestion made by Phil Agre is that to understand the shift in once
radical liberalism to the current confused bundle of contradictory concepts
one needs to understand how conservatism has coopted concepts relating to
ethics and human values and redefined them, often to mean their opposites
(see, http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html ).
This is broadly supported by historic analyses in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism )
Many of Phil Agre's papers are found on his home page: at
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/ or in RedRock Eater newsletter archives
at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/rre.html
They are engaging and useful reading - you've been warned!
Finally, just wondering if this thread is drifting a bit off topic for
PhD-Design?
Terry
===
Dr. Terence Love
Tel/Fax: +61 (0)8 9305 7629
Mobile: 0434975 848
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-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dr.
Joseph Chiodo
Sent: Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Liberal?
Hello Chris & Ken,
1st off, thank you for the clarification. My mistake - I misinterpreted
the word. I must confess, I did not read the first few posts of that string
- my perpetually jetlagged busyness has cost me quite a bit of rigor here. I
therefore interpreted the word according to my sometimes tumultuous
experience in a half-dozen or so universities that I have received degrees
and post graduate degrees from. Most of these institutions were very leftist
and self-proclaimed 'liberals'; as in overtly liberal leftist thinking. I
took a couple of courses in critical thinking and deductive process without
mention of the historical term of liberal as you put it. Mind you I was
educated in a postcolonial world mindset in North America, Europe and UK:
I'm barely 30odd with interests in molecular physics,
mathematics/probability - not much to do with this topic. Needless to say,
as a scientist/inventor etc. eventually, I was clearly not at home amongst
these hardline socialists (some
communist) who proclaimed ownership of the term 'liberal' as such. Ironic,
some might say.
My experience with conservatives is very different than yours. I have
found more bigots on the 'left' than on the 'right'. I myself, can not
consider myself either. I think they both have some decent intentions. But
as for practical solutions.... that's a whole new debate.
I believe the role of relativism however, is largely taken for granted.
Would you not say that most people, at least in our circles, are more
relativistic in their deductive process than purely deductive logic would
warrant? Perhaps this is a bold thing to say but I would be interested to
know your thoughts, perhaps in another string.
Nonetheless, I'm no expert in this field. Interesting topics indeed.
Joe
Chris Rust <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dr. Joseph Chiodo wrote:
> Most fundamentalist or neo-liberals however, are too simply minded in
their constructs to notice...
Sorry Joe, I'm afraid you are perpetuating the problem here. I am
concerned about our responsibility, as academics and researchers, to be
precise.
What I was trying to say, in my oblique British way, is that terminology
can be very misleading, especially in an international arena. The very
term "neo-liberal" would be an oxymoron in my country where political
Liberals are soft-left with an undercurrent of Adam Smith. In Australia
the Liberal Party is the most right-leaning mainstream party which would
probably have some ideas in common with the Republicans in the USA.
"Liberal" and "libertarian" do connect. As you look around the world you
see that the idea of liberalism has been very liberally interpreted.
And liberal education, or liberal arts education, which I've always been
told is the foundation of US university education, is nothing to do with
the kind of political thinking that seem to be implied by the term
liberal in that country. It implies a broad foundation of knowledge
rather than a specialism and I assume it produced George Bush and Dick
Cheney as well as more "liberal" thinkers. If such a foundation leads
people to question demagoguery that's a consequence of education and
awareness. I read a while ago that people with a higher education are
less likely to be racist - in my book that means they are more liberal
(ie open-minded and inclusive) and better for it. If you have a
different specialist definition of the word, as a researcher, I'm afraid
you have to be precise about that and aware of the possibility of confusion.
Best
Chris
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