John said to dmb: ... since you and I agree on disparaging Relativism, I'm puzzled how you can disagree with me that Truth is an Absolute Ideal. Even if you make Experience your Absolute, it is still, an Absolute.
dmb says: The pragmatic theory of truth is neither. It's a false dilemma. James and Pirsig agree that there is no such thing as the Truth. There are specific truths in the plural and they are provisional. They agree on the notion that "truth is a species of the good" so it is also NOT absolute in the sense that it is one particular kind of Quality, specifically intellectual static quality. Also, the pragmatist says that ideas are made true in experience. In a very real sense, this kind of truth is not ideal. It's practical and empirical. A true idea is one that leads you successfully in experience and false ideas don't. In that sense, truth is agreement with experience. But this applies to the realm intellectual realm as well as the workshop or science lab. "True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well," James says, and they "lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse. They lead away from excentricity and isolation, from foiled and barren thin king". In other words, true ideas have quality. They work well AS ideas. Ron: In short, true ideas are a drive towards betterness. True ideas are those that are "better". therefore "truth" may be understood as a specific type of quality, intellectual quality. Intellectual "betterness". A species of the good. This activity is most pleasant and best, it is in this better state that the divine has it's being, "Life at it's eternal best". 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
