"He Doesn’t Think He's Lying":The Moral Significance of Donald J.Trump’s Linguistic Practices

• 作者: Nathan Hilberg
• 来源期刊: 复旦人文社会科学论丛:英文版
• 学科: 工学
• 关键词: Moral schemas Moral theory Divine Command Theory METAETHICS US politics
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（1）
• 页码范围: 107-121
• 页数: 15页
• 分类号: TP3

摘要

Synthesizing the metaethical aspects of George Lakoff’s conception of Strict Father Morality(SFM)and Divine Command Theory(DCT)helps us to have a better understanding of the Trump phenomenon,US President Trump regularly deviating from accepted facts and his supporters having no problem with this practice.We misunderstand the situation if we presume that Trump5s mendacity and his supporters,credulity fully account for this situation.More specifically,I argue that the authoritarian thread that runs through SFM/DCT provides Trump with the justification,in his view as well as in the eyes of his supporters,to dictate the meaning of key concepts,for example,truth,fairness,and justice.As a result,when Trump says something that seems plainly false,I argue that we better understand the situation if we regard Trump as taking himself to be defining what the term in question means.This situation has far-reaching ramifications,from destabilizing the meaning of key moral terms to all issues becoming partisan issues to the loss of expertise.