Re: MD Begging the Question, Moral Intuitions, and Answering the Nazi, Part III

From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sun Oct 26 2003 - 01:04:58 BST

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    Scott,

    Platt said:
    And, am I correct in assuming Rorty denies the existence of God or any such big T truths?

    Scott said:
    I would imagine so, but I have never come across a statement like "I [Rorty] do not believe in any big T Truths." He does say that religion should be a private affair, and not a part of philosophy. I disagree with him on that.

    Matt:
    When Rorty is being careful, he does not say that "God does not exist" or "big T truths do not exist." To say either of these things is to make a move in a language game that Rorty wishes not to play. Instead, he says that we should simply stop talking about God and big T Truth. So, if Rorty characterizes himself as an atheist (which he does), he isn't saying that he has some certain knowledge that God does not in fact exist, he's saying that he currently does not find discussion of God an interesting topic.

    On religion, Scott's right that Rorty thinks we should privatize religion, but that isn't contrasted with it being in philosophy, but being in politics (which I know Scott still disagrees with). Rorty has no problem with religion in philosophy because he also thinks that philosophy should be privatized, ala John Rawls (cf. "The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy"). A mixing of private predelictions is, well, a private affair.

    Matt

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