Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Practical Reason, Technical Reason, Pantheism

Traditionally, Praxis and Techne are distinguished as Doing vs. Making.  Also implicit in that distinction is that of the object of the process--oneself vs. something external.  But, Doing can also be conceived as Making-oneself, i. e. common phrases like 'making something of oneself' or 're-inventing oneself' connote Techne as much as Praxis.  But, that connotation has more rarified origins.  In Immanent Pantheism, e. g. Spinoza's, all divine creating is self-creating, as is, therefore, the conduct of a Mode who instantiates that divinity.  Likewise, a creature who is created 'in the image' of its creator, e. g. in Genesis 1, is itself a creator, first and foremost.  So, there are Theological grounds for conceiving Practical Reason as a special case of Technical Reason, but they are generally not recognized as such because of heterodox premises.  On those grounds, the Principle of Sufficient Reason is actually a Principle of Sufficient Technical Reason, a potential Theologically-based fundamental Ethical principle, e. g. Spinoza's doctrine.

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