Yes, like I said, pragmatists have always been up against the charge of relativism. James and Dewey scholars have been doing quite a lot of work refuting that charge, leveling it against Rorty and otherwise trying to sort that out. That conversation is exactly where you will find the differences between relativism and pluralism, between relativism and perspectivalism, between relative truth and provisional truth.
You may have seen this issue as it was played out in my discussions with Steve. We talked about the difference between the empirically based pragmatic theory of truth and Rorty's view that we shouldn't even have a theory of truth. Since he thinks there is no such thing as truth and no real chance of having an epistemological standard, he thinks there are no constraints on our claims except for conversational ones. That's what I'd call relativism. (It's no coincidence that Rorty rejects the empirical parts of James and Dewey.) His view is more sophisticated than saying "reality is whatever you think" and he avoids the problem of solipsism entirely, but it amounts it amount to relativism all the same. Even among postmodern thinkers, this is not a label worn proudly. Rorty didn't think it applied to him and his defenders get pretty sore about the charge. And yet here you are defending it like it was a good thing. I think you must not realize what you're saying, how disreputable such a position is. In any case, if experience is the test of truth then reality demonstrably is or demonstrably is not what you think it is. If pragmatism says our beliefs are constrained by experience, then you can't rightly call it relativism. To put it quite simply, empiricism and relativism are mutually exclusive positions. Your claim equates mutally exclusive positions. That is, in a nutshell, why it makes no sense. > From: [email protected] > Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:58:18 -0400 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [MD] william James. > > > Cognitive relativism asserts the relativity of truth. > > ... > > In the twentieth century, a relativistic view of truth can be found in or > inferred from the work of many major philosophers, including James, Dewey, > Wittgenstein, Quine, Kuhn, Gadamer, Foucault, Rorty, and most of those > commonly labeled “postmodernists”. > > http://www.iep.utm.edu/cog-rel/ > > ___ > > > 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 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
