Posted by Randy Barnett:
The Pragmatic Conceit
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_14-2008_12_20.shtml#1229812180
Nice column on [1]The Pragmatic Conceit--A new empty wave on NRO by
Stanford Law student Anthony Dick. Here is a taste:
To the extent that it performs any conceptual function at all,
pragmatism seems to boil down to the more mundane concepts of
flexibility, open-mindedness, and deliberation. A �pragmatist�
might be said to be someone who, though inevitably laden with
policy prejudices, is willing to put them aside and adapt to new
situations as needed. But if this is all that pragmatism means,
everybody would self-describe as a pragmatist. Nobody thinks failed
policies should be continued when circumstances demand a change.
But there will inevitably be disputes as to when policies have
truly failed and when circumstances really demand a change, and
those disputes will inevitably break down along ideological lines.
Pragmatism cannot provide any neutral way to resolve our
disagreements, because it cannot magically transform people into
objective, dispassionate, non-ideological truth-seekers.
It is of course still possible to criticize someone for being too
rigid and unreflective in his positions, but those charges are
quite serious enough on their own without muddying the waters by
plopping in the vague and misleading concept of pragmatism.
When people praise a policy or a politician as �pragmatic,� they�re
often simply praising themselves for being open-minded. They are
projecting a false pretense of objectivity, premised on the conceit
that they are utterly free of ideology while their opponents are
mired in prejudice. In fact, a so-called pragmatist�s support for a
policy indicates only two things: that he agrees with the policy�s
goal, and that he believes the policy is likely to achieve the goal
in an efficient way. But these are precisely the controversies at
the core of every old ideological dispute: Which goals should we
strive for? And what is the best way to achieve these goals?
Pragmatism as a catch phrase does not displace those ideological
questions, but does a great deal to obscure them.
References
1.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjhjZWUyMTMyZTQzYmI5NDQ1MWVhOGViYTZhNDJkOGE=
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