Hi dmb, > dmb said to Steve: > ...I answered this already. I supplied the answer directly to you, in detail, > in this same thread, connecting my use of "relativism" with Pirsig's use of > the term. This was all asked and answered about a week ago. ... > > > Steve replied: > So you keep saying, but I wouldn't keep asking if I could find your answer. > What is your definition of relativism? All I know is that you think someone > who says "there are no non-conversational constraints on inquiry" is a > relativist by your definition, but I don't know what your definition is. > > > dmb says: ... here is the bulk of my previous answer...
Steve: Again, what I am asking is a definition of relativism as in "a relativist is a person who asserts X" where you precisely and clearly spell out what you mean by X so that we can see if you are correct that Rorty fits your definition while James does not. The closest thing I find to such a definition is this sentence: "Pirsig says "twentieth century relativists ..held that it is unscientific to interpret values in culture B by the values of culture A... Cultures are unique historical patterns which contain their own values and cannot be judged in terms of the values of other cultures." But if this is what you meant, you still have some significant work to do to tailor this bit as a definition of relativism that distinguishes Rorty from James since neither Rorty nor James says that it _is_ scientific to "interpret values in culture B by the values of culture A" and neither Rorty nor James agrees that "cultures...cannot be judged in terms of the values of other cultures." In fact, Rorty is very explicit that cultures are and can be judged in terms of the values of other cultures. So once again I ask you, please provide a specific definition of relativism that we can use in this discussion to clarify how you think Rorty fits your definition while James does not. Best, Steve 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
