DM,
Matt said:
...the big problem with SOM is for philosophers, not lay folk. That's the big
place, I suppose, where I differ with Pirsig: I don't see SOM as a cultural
problem of amazing magnitude.
DM said:
The Continental tradition after Heidegger clearly argues that SOM has vast
cultural implications....
Matt:
I consider one of the most important things that Rorty taught me was the
suspicious eye we should cast on philosophers who think their problems are
problems for everybody. I think Foucault did exemplary work in digging up
problems regular folk contend with, but I think he was wrong in linking
philosophers' problems were everybody's. SOM doesn't have vast cultural
implications, it has vast implications for the culture of philosophers.
DM said:
...why do you think word language has some kind of privilege?
Matt:
Because we use it, and it isn't so much a privilege as it is simply a way of
distinguishing word-language from other languages, by e.g., limiting "language"
to what humans use via words.
DM said:
I think you are begging questions about what we mean by concepts. You see it is
just as easy to muddy the notion of concept and say that recognised patterns
that we sense require something like concepts to be recognised. Rorty and you
are not going far enough I'd suggest because you are attempting tokeep
distinctions that are up for grabs.
Matt:
Yeah, we could back and forth all day about who's the one not going far enough
(tag: you're it). But I don't think you really understand what I'm
suggesting--I don't really see it as _obvious_ that language is this or
knowledge is that, I simply think it is _easier_ if we see language and
knowledge the way I'm suggesting. I'm pinning down the words in the
constellation I have them on purpose, I'm not suggesting (like Plato) that I've
found where the words _are_ pinned down. So, yeah, I'm begging questions, so
are you. That's what happens when you pin stuff down into assumptions
differently. But without starting assumptions, you can't go anywhere. So,
sure, as nominalists it's all up for grabs, but I'm moving to stage two:
grabbing them.
Matt
p.s. I've read some Dewey and I like him. He has a lot of utility,
particularly with his political focus. For me, I guess I don't feel the need
to choose between Rorty and Dewey. Others, apparently, do.
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