American Exceptionalism via the Conservative Sensibility

This piece theorizes what I wrote a month ago, American Exceptionalism, on January 6 of this year. That piece was a result of my thoughts as a proud immigrate of thirty-plus years, began my first landing at the San Fransisco International Airport in 1987, and then turned to be a proud U.S. citizen of twenty-two years. Although I have eyewitnessed American politics since President Reagan’s years, this piece is not about party politics. It is about neither patriotism nor nationalism. Instead, it is about human progress in human society. 

George F. Will (1941- ) expected The Conservative Sensibility (2019),  to be an enduring classic of the American political thoughts, even if it was the time at his most pessimistic view of American politics: “this book is a summon to pessimism,” in his own words. Let us look at his illuminating book title first. 

The Conservative Sensibility

“There is a braided relationship between a person’s political philosophy and his or her sensibility, meaning a proclivity for seeing and experiencing the passage of time and the tumult of events in a particular way. Which comes first? Perhaps, in most cases, neither; they evolve entwined and are mutually reinforcing. (Boldfaced at my liberty.) A sensibility is more than an attitude but less than an agenda, less than a pragmatic response to the challenge of comprehensively reforming society in general.” (Page xvi of The Conservative Sensibility.) 

Sensibility comes from human body organs, whereas logic is the quality of human metaphysics. As indicated in the boldface inside the quotation above, the human’s body and mind are synchronized, or, at least, entwined and mutually reinforcing. How precisely could one say it better than that! 

“The conservative sensibility, especially, is best defined by its reasoning about concrete matters in particular societies. (Boldfaced at my liberty.) The American conservative sensibility, as explained in this volume, is a perpetually unfolding response to real situations that require statesmanship–the application of general principles to untidy realities. Conservatism does not float above all times and places. The conservative sensibility is relevant to all times and places, (boldfaced at my liberty,) but it is lived and revealed locally, in the conversation of a specific polity. The American conservative sensibility is situated here; it is a national expression of reasoning, (boldfaced at my liberty) reveled in practices.” (Page xvi of The Conservative Sensibility.)

Logic in our language reveals the quality of our reasoning about concrete matters. It is relevant to all times and places, which are the a priori knowledge assisting our understanding of whatever concrete matters at hand. A national expression of reasoning, again as indicated in the boldface inside the quotation above, is about sharing among people who have a common understanding. Further, it is as guidance in American politics. 

Conservatism is about the conservation of wisdom. Or it is nothing of much lasting significance. “The proper question for conservatives is: What do you seek to conserve? The proper answer is concise but deceptively simple: We seek to conserve the American Founding. (Again, boldfaced at my liberty.)” (Page xvii of The Conservative Sensibility.) In fact, American Founding is American Exceptionalism. 

American Exceptionalism

“Beyond the reach of majorities.” 

Given as an excellent example, George Will pointed out how Lincoln’s rise to greatness via his reasoning with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). Introduced by Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, empowered the residents of those two territories to decide whether or not to have the institution of slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was based on the principle of “popular sovereignty.” Lincoln disagreed with such a principle of the majority rule, which seemed an essential point of American politics. 

Lincoln’s reasoning, via Lincoln-Douglas debates, is the all-time best proof of the aphorism “American politics is not about the process but the condition for liberty.” Indeed, it is about human progress.

“American Founding”

Commonly known as a theory of American Exceptionalism, George F. Will listed the three facts about the theory within American Founding as follows.

I. Americans were born exceptionally free from a feudal past, hence free from an established church and an entrenched aristocracy. It gives the raise to Americans exceptionally able to achieve social mobility. 

II. America had an exceptional revolutionary war, 1775-1783.

III. Americans codified their Founding doctrines as a natural rights republic in an exceptional Constitution, one that does not say what government must do for them but what government may not do to them. Therefore, American’s central government is exceptionally constructed to limit the discretion of those in power by balancing rival centers of power. (Adapted from page xxvii of The Conservative Sensibility.) 

Thought and Language

“The thought is the significant proposition. The totality of propositions is the language. “(Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, 4-4.001.)

“Man possesses the capacity of constructing languages, in which every sense can be expressed, without having an idea how and what each word means– just as one speaks without knowing how the sounds of a single word are produced. Colloquial language is a part of the human organism and it is not less complicated than the logic of the language. It is not humanly possible to gather the logic of language in it. Language disguises the thought. From the external form of the clothes, one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized. The silent adjustments to understand colloquial language are enormously complicated.” (T4.002. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, first published by Kegan Paul London, 1922. SIDE-BY-SIDE-BY-SIDE EDITION, VERSION 0.58 , MAY 24, 2020, containing the original German, alongside the Ogden/Ramsey and Pears/McGuinness English translations. Available: http://people.umass.edu/klement/tlp/ )

In my previous writing on January 17, 2021, I detailed “thoughts and language” based on Chomsky’s view arguing against behaviorists’ view. Under the study of metaphysics, Wittgenstein had the best analyses on this subject. “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” (Tractatus 5.6.) Indeed, the limits of anyone’s world are the limits of human understanding at an individual level. Human understanding relies on human’s metaphysics that, in turn, relies on each one’s experience and the learning of his/her experience, which is different from rote learning — the learning by human memorization of propositions that express/explain the natural world and that we call knowledge. If one can memorize the propositions about specific scientific knowledge, he/she was considered the master of the knowledge. Whether he/she understands it or not, it’s anyone’s guess, usually via answers to questions on tests in the context of education. In this writing, I will dedicate my space to explain Wittgenstein on thought and language. 

First, let me inform readers of Wittgenstein’s view on philosophy. Philosophy is not one of the natural sciences, that is, the knowledge of the natural world. (T4.111.) “The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. The result of philosophy is not ‘philosophical propositions,’ but to make propositions clear. Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred.“ (T4.112.) For example, “The Darwinian theory has no more to do with philosophy than has any other hypothesis of natural science.” (T4.1122.) Indeed, philosophy is an activity; it is about the principles of human understanding of the natural world. “Philosophy limits the disputable sphere of natural science.“ (T4.113.) Philosophy provides us the guide in scientific discoveries. 

Language disguises the thought, just like the clothes conceal body; likewise, clothes may enhance the body. The thought is the significant proposition. (T4.) A proposition consists of essential and accidental features. Accidental are features due to which a particular way of producing the propositional sign. The essential enables the proposition to express its sense. (T3.34.) An essential in a proposition is the new sense that provides our new understanding of the world. (T4.027.)

Philosophy will limit what cannot be said by presenting what can be said with clarity. (T4.114.) Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be put into words can be done clearly. (T4.115.) The unspeakable is the limitation of human understanding.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a scientific study of philosophy, which is not the same as a study of the philosophy of the mind, where the mind-body problem is at the center of the study.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I am reading the first philosophical treaty of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. (First published by Kegan Paul London, 1922, SIDE-BY-SIDE-BY-SIDE EDITION, VERSION 0.58 , MAY 24, 2020,
containing the original German, alongside the Ogden/Ramsey and Pears/McGuinness English translations. Available: http://people.umass.edu/klement/tlp/ )

The purpose of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus is to deal with the problems of philosophy. He believes that the misunderstanding of these problems is in the logic of our language. It depends on how we can formulate questions. He asserts that what can be said at all can be said clearly. I concur with this belief.

Wittgenstein thinks that the limits of thinking depend on thinking of both sides of a limit. One is to think of how to express thoughts. The other is the nonsense in the thoughts. Incidentally, that is the same as the description of a piece of knowledge one may have by Confucius (551-479BC): 知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。 According to Wittgenstein, when thoughts are in expressions, the truth of the thoughts may communicate. It is not in textbook format but for those who understand and read his text with pleasure. Indeed, I do. I am writing now with two purposes on mind. One is to clarify my thoughts on metaphysics. The other is to share my thoughts with those who understand my writings and might provide me feedback.

Pictures and truths

“The world can be shown in logical pictures.” (Tractatus, 2.19.) A picture is independent of reality and providing senses that have connections with reality. We are enabled with our faculty in logical space and time, and we can judge these pictures as true/false or correct/incorrect. “There is no a priori truth in the pictures.” (Tractatus, 2.225.)

“An a priori true thought would be one whose possibility guaranteed its truth.” (Tractatus, 3.04.) For example, Newtonian Gravity is such an a priori true thought. Assume that we are inside a high pressurized mental ball with the vacuum in it. If we use a conventional meter to check gravitational force, we will be guaranteed to find none.

“An a priori true thought is a truth in itself without an object of comparison.” (Tractatus, 3.05.) Indeed, Newtonian Gravity is the absolute truth on earth. The mental ball, where we were while measuring if the gravitational force exists, is not an object of comparison but the condition of the possibility (of the a priori truth, Newtonian Gravity,) provided that the gravitational force will not exist inside the ball.

A Remark

I hope I have shown the scientific view of human understanding via Wittgenstein’s writings with examples. Until scientists can provide links between metaphysics and physics, these writings have to be my approach to study metaphysics.