Matt said: Yeah, but the "behaviorism" that follows from what Quine was doing doesn't really have all that much to do with what Skinner was doing, let alone Rorty's extrapolations of Quine. In my opinion, Skinner has nothing much to do at all with the best analytic philosophers of the late 20th century. You could know nothing about Skinner and get along fine.
Krimel said: I think Skinner would find that amusing. Do analytic philosophers really have that much to do with anything? Matt: Hah, yeah, that's true enough. I meant more, "get along fine in reading post-Quinean analytic philosophy." Skinner's an important point in our intellectual and cultural history, but I don't think I'd overestimate his importance, to philosophy at least. But hey, maybe that's because my understanding of the broad contours is skewed in the wrong direction. What can I say, I'm a humanist. Krimel said: I guess you guys are focused on analytical philosophology but I think anyone less single minded would get along a bit better if they knew something about Skinner. Matt: Yeah, I wish people knew more about the origins of literacy in Greece and the impact of communicative technology on culture, but we can't get everything we wish for. There's only so much we can do in life, and a lot of intellectual triage is certainly going to happen. I'm glad people aren't obsessed with the things I am, that way they can summarize the things I haven't gotten around to and let me know. Matt _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™ Hotmail®…more than just e-mail. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_012009 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
