Greetings, I won't ask about the choice of extremes, and what those choices are dependent on?
Marsha On Jan 31, 2010, at 8:14 PM, david buchanan wrote: > > > dmb said to Steve: > ...relativism and foundationalism aren't the only two options and I'm opposed > to them both. > > > Steve replied: > I agree, and so does Rorty. The key difference may be that you see "other > options" as middle ground, while I see the alternative as dropping the notion > of grounding all together. > > dmb says: > > Exactly, I'm saying that foundationalism and relativism are the extreme > positions and the other options would be somewhere in the middle. See, > dropping the notion of grounding altogether is the purely anti-foundational > move that results in relativism. In this case, that's not an alternative to > relativism but rather the cause of it. Because he thinks no reconstruction > project is desirable or even possible, Rorty ends up holding the extreme > position. As Hildebrand puts it, "Rorty's neo-pragmatism harbors such a deep > skepticism about traditional epistemologies and metaphysics that it can > accept only a wholesale rejection of their projects" (103). As Rorty saw it, > Dewey was either intentionally slipping back into essentialism or he was > doing so unconsciously. Hildebrand calls this "Rorty's Fork", which I take to > be a version of that all-or-nothingism I keep seeing again and again. Rorty > even suggest that we bracket out all of Dewey's constructive work (bad Dewey) > but applaud the anti-foundationalism, anti-Cartesianism and the other similar > demolition projects. Rorty thinks Dewey was just so confused or whatever that > when he offered his reconstructions, Dewey somehow aligned himself "with > doctrines he repudiated, becoming, in effect, his own nemesis" (105). > Hildebrand is making a case here that this unflattering Janus portrait of > Dewey is not untrue, bracketing out the reconstructive side "eviscerates" > pragmatism. I agree. For all the same reasons, Rorty's neopragmatism would > have cut out of the MOQ as well. > By now it should be clear that central notions like primary and secondary > experience and projects seeking the generic traits of existence cannot be > expunged from Dewey's philosophy, nor do they need to be. Rorty's claim that > such notions only indicate Dewey's fealty to the obsolete tenets of > traditional metaphysics does not stand scrutiny. It is unfortunate that Rorty > cannot shake his conviction that ANY philosophical project that aims to > describe the most general features of reality must be seeking the divine. > Dewey understood the vice of overgeneralizations, and so he admitted > generalities into metaphysic only insofar as they could be functionally > justified. In other words, he knew that a metaphysical inquiry would only be > worthwhile if it begins from a living starting point and is set up with > categories that can adjust to the tests and revisions of future experience. > An empirical metaphysics begins not with a THEORY that life is interactive > but with the interactions - the EXISTENCES - themselves. (120) > > By contrast, because Rorty's "approach is based on the demonstration that all > vocabularies are metaphysically equal - i.e., no vocabularies can claim to > 'get at' what we now know is a phantom, the 'really real' - it offers an > opportunity for the downtrodden humanities to take back power from thier > scientistic oppressors. It's a sexy fantasy, but not one on which Rorty's > neopragmatism can deliver" (124). Hildebrand even thinks that, at times, > Rorty's "linguistic pragmatism borders on whimsical nonsense". (124) > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. > http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390706/direct/01/ > 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/ ___ 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/
