Marsha said to dmb:
Your conflating 'absolute relativism' with 'relativism' is intellectual
honesty???
dmb says:
Okay, I'll bite despite your tone. Sounds like you're all primed up with
distinctions and that's cool. This will be a chance to take them out for a
walk. What is "absolute relativism"? (Sounds like a contradiction in terms to
me.) How is that different from plain, naked, unqualified "relativism"? How
does "conflation" constitute intellectual dishonesty? (I think the term refers
to a conceptual error wherein two different things are fused in to one thing,
as opposed to "confusion", which means the terms on either side of the
distinction are backwards or mixed up in some way.) And finally, when and how
did I conflate the two?
Marsha said:
And your bragging about what you believe to be your intellectual competency
makes me think you a fool.
dmb says:
Yea, okay. I'm a fool. But I've also worked very hard for a long time. Why do
you feel the need to belittle that? Why does that count against me? And here,
of all places! My efforts are aimed at understanding the MOQ better and then
getting it out there, you know?
I hope to get it out there as something other than relativism, by the way.
That's why I'm interested in distinguishing it from Rorty's brand of
pragmatism, which is very frequently criticized for its relativism. It's a big
issue and it pretty much means a war between the absolutists and the nihilists.
I think Pirsig's pragmatism is neither. Pragmatists and other philosophers are
already talking about this issue in a certain way. I don't recall any of them
using the term "absolute relativism". Usually it's a matter of "cognitive
relativism" or "cultural relativism". Because pragmatists deny that there is a
single objective truth, they are accused of cognitive relativism. Because they
believe knowledge is provisional and contextual they are accused of cultural
relativism. And usually, that's a dirty word.
You're the only one I know that doesn't deny it like they've just been accused
of murder. Even Rorty denies that he's a relativist. It cracks people up when
he does, but still.
Hugs and kisses. You're the best. I love you.
dmb
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469227/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/md/archives.html
