Re: justice and self-realization in WS analysis: justice isn't enough

>With that thought in mind--I realize it is a bit enigmatic and in need of
>clarification--one wonders what sort of thing is the proper end of
political
>philosophy? In my view, we have to ask what it is we want a world system to
>accomplish. (That, it turn, makes us ask what it is reasonable to believe
can be
>accomplished, but more on that later.)There has to be more to life than
insuring
>that we all have a fair opportunity to eat, shit and procreate. What do we
want
>to accomplish as a ws, which ultimately means, what do we want to
accomplish as
>humanity (although with a wider environmental consciousness)?


Surely this is the tragedy of humanity as a collective.  We exist as a
species but have no more idea of why we do than the squirrel or the cactus,
and certainly less of an idea than the honey bee.  I would suggest that this
not something that a human collective can shed much light on.  Each
individual must answer it for him or herself.  The role of the collective is
to establish conditions in which answers can be sought if not found.  The
most important of these conditions would be that each seeker can proceed
without impairing the rights of others to do so.

(Sorry if this too sound ad hominem (though hopefully not sexist), but I
personally don't see it as a matter for rational debate.  What in my
strongly held opinion can and should be debated is the substance of the last
sentence ie., how we collectively establish conditions that enable all
people to seek out the meaning of their individual lives.)

Ed Weick