The Collapse of the Grand Narrative

Jean-François Lyotard

Lyotard's work is characterized by a persistent opposition to universals, meta-narratives, and generality. He is fiercely critical of many of the 'universalist' claims of the Enlightenment, and several of his works serve to undermine the fundamental principles that generate these broad claims. Most famously, in La Condition postmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir (The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge) (1979), he argued that our age (with its postmodern condition) is marked by an 'incredulity towards meta-narratives'. These meta-narratives - sometimes 'grand narratives' - are grand, large-scale theories and philosophies of the world, such as the progress of history, the knowability of everything by science, and the possibility of absolute freedom. Lyotard argues that we have ceased to believe that narratives of this kind are adequate to represent and contain us all. We have become alert to difference, diversity, the incompatibility of our aspirations, beliefs and desires, and for that reason postmodernity is characterised by an abundance of micronarratives. For this concept Lyotard draws on and strongly reinterprets the notion of 'language-games' found in the work of Wittgenstein.

In Lyotard's works, the term 'language games', sometimes also called 'phrase regimens', denotes the multiplicity of communities of meaning, the innumerable and incommensurable separate systems in which meanings are produced and rules for their circulation are created.

This becomes more crucial in Au juste: Conversations (Just Gaming) (1979) and Le Différend (The Differend) (1983), which develop a postmodern theory of justice. It might appear that the atomisation of human beings implied by the notion of the micronarrative and the language game suggests a collapse of ethics. It has often been thought that universality is a condition for something to be a properly ethical statement: 'thou shalt not steal' is an ethical statement in a way that 'thou shalt not steal from Margaret' is not. The latter is too particular to be an ethical statement (what's so special about Margaret?); it is only ethical if it rests on a universal statement ('thou shalt not steal from anyone'). But universals are impermissible in a world that has lost faith in metanarratives, and so it would seem that ethics is impossible. Justice and injustice can only be terms within language games, and the universality of ethics is out of the window. Lyotard argues that notions of justice and injustice do in fact remain in postmodernism. The new definition of injustice is indeed to use the language rules from one 'phrase regimen' and apply them to another. Ethical behaviour is about remaining alert precisely to the threat of this injustice, of paying attention to things in their particularity and not enclosing them within abstract conceptuality. One must bear witness to the 'differend'.

DR2H

Obama's Way is a 30 year program

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling was a bipartisan presidential commission, established by Executive Order 13543 signed by Barack Obama on May 21, 2010, that was “tasked with providing recommendations on how the United States can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling.”

This commission got the wrong answer.  We never heard about the results.  A description is available on Wikipedia.

Constitutional lawyer Barack Obama as the recently elected President of the United States of America rapidly surmised that BP was the responsible party.

The US Government has established a 30 year program described in http://www.nap.edu/catalog/18962/gulf-research-program-a-strategic-vision .

PV=nRT

The ideal gas law.  Seems nothing is ideal since Obama first got elected.

The ideal gas law says that the pressure P times the volume V is equal to n the number of moles of gas contained in the volume times the universal gas constant R times the temperature T.

T is the temperature above absolute zero.  P is the absolute pressure.  The absolute pressure is the gauge pressure plus atmospheric pressure.  I recall 1 standard atmospheric pressure to be 14.7 pounds per square inch.

Most solids, liquids, and gases expand with increasing temperature and contract with decreasing temperature.

Typically, gases expand(contract) more(less) than liquids which expand(contract) more than solids with increasing(decreasing) temperature.

In brief, both the leather of the football and the air in it should expand with temperature and contract with decreasing temperature.

Physicists usually consider the simplest model first.  The simplest model is that the ideal gas law holds and that the only material affected by the temperature is the gas inside the football.

This model will assume that n and V are constant.

Any decrease in temperature will cause a ball inflated to 12.5 lbs/sqin to be outside the official range.

One atmosphere is 14.7 lbs/in**2.  A minimally inflated ball should have an actual pressure of 27.2 lbs/sqin.

The temperature in Rankine is the temperature in Fahrenheit plus 459.67. 

P2ndhalf =( P@inpection+14.7)* T2ndhalf/T@imspection.-14.7

Assume room temperature is 72 degrees F and the temperature at the beginning of the 2nd half was 51 degrees F.

Under these conditions, the pressure at the beginning of the 2nd half would be 11.43 lbs/sqin.

DR2H

Counter Terrorism

Benjamin Netanyahu was the first to exploit George W. Bush's counter-terrorism definition.  Joe Biden has assisted BO in exploiting it much more.

Just following Orders was not adequate defense for the Nazis.
 
In the best of all worlds, Dick Cheney would not have prodded George W. into invading Iraq.  George W. Bush was/is a "born again" Christian.  He and Tony Blair shared some vision/fear of the Moslem Hordes.  Norman Podaretz, founder of Commentary, came around to the position that the Arab - Israeli peace process was "fatally flawed".

Religious fundamentalists do not get along with each other very well.  I found the book Stealing Jesus to be informative and accurate.  I belong to a people of the Book.  My brother is a retired Methodist minister.  My father-in-law is a retired Methodist minister.  I used to have Jewish neighbors and I have led a Sunday School Class in Florida.  We shared the presentation responsibilities.  I gave the presentations of Islam, twice.

Bush's wetback Attorney General was the one who decided it is OK for us to torture.  Until this guy, the answer to the "hypothetical" was, in Hugo Black's words "Of course we would but we can never say that!"  My view is that we should have to rely on a trial by peers to show us mercy.
  

Joe Biden Benefits

Joe Biden was a co-author of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  Vice President Joe Biden has favored using drones to terminate terrorists.

George W. Bush defined Counter-Terrorism (CT) poorly.  He defined it as a war against terrorists and countries which host them.

President Obama, aided and abetted by Joe Biden, has implemented a policy of striking terrorists wherever they are and whenever they can be found.  In CT, there are no innocent victims.  Due largely to Bush's definition, all citizens of a country which has not expelled the terrorist is an enemy.

Ferguson Grand Jury does the right thing

ISIS is lopping off heads and Obama wants to straighten out our police.

Obama has shown us what is much worse than a compassionate conservative - a Compassionate Liberal.

Proposed ABA Code of Ethics

Members of the IEEE (Engineers) are ethically required to correct errors.  The IEEE Code of Ethics is available at http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html  .  The major change in adapting it for lawyers was removing the decision making responsibility which was mentioned as the first part of #1.

We, the members of the ABA, in recognition of the importance of our laws and regulations in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

 

1.    to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;

2.    to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;

3.    to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;  

4.    to reject bribery in all its forms;  

5.    to improve the understanding of law; its appropriate application, and potential consequences;  

6.    to maintain and improve our legal competence and to undertake legal tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;  

7.    to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;  

8.    to treat fairly all persons and to not engage in acts of discrimination based on race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression;

9.    to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;  

10.  to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.

 

Engineers are not particularly appreciative of having (not so technical) errors pointed out to them but learn to tolerate it gracefully.