From: Valence (valence10@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Feb 08 2003 - 21:43:17 GMT
Hey DMB,
DMB
In any case, I think pragmatism's rejection of so many traditional
philosophical issues only demonstates the moral paralysis inherent in
pragmatism, where moral
sentiments are just attituides and plattitudes, they're impervious,
incorribigle and contingent. It is no wonder this view has no defense
against a NAZI hijacking. It treats morality just as SOM does; it sees such
things as unknowable, uncertain, unfounded and not really real.
RICK
I'm not sure what philosophy you're criticizing in this quote DMB,
(maybe ethical relativism? or some sort of post-modernism?)... but it's not
pragmatism. Pragmatism is tool, it's not a "philosophical position" in the
traditional sense. Saying that pragmatism suffers from "moral paralysis"
because it "has no defense against a NAZI hijacking" is as meaningless as
saying that a hammer suffers from "moral paralysis" because it has no
defense against being used as murder weapon as opposed to a carpentry aid;
or saying that a pencil suffers from "moral paralysis" because it can be
used to write MEIN KAMPF as opposed to LILA.
James's Pragmatism is simply a method of examining seemingly opposing
metaphysical positions by tracing the consequences of holding each
respective position. Pragmatism doesn't claim to be able to tell you which
side of a dispute you should come down on. It claims to be able to help you
decide if there is really a dispute in the first place, and if so, what the
disagreement really is.
For example, the pragmatist in me is telling me that you and I don't
disagree about whether pragmatism suffers from "moral paralysis" or whether
pragmatism is "... a moral nightmare.... the stuff of horror movies. ...a
black abyss. ... nihilism at its worst. ... quite wrong ...even dangerous".
Rather, we disagree about the far more fundamental issue of what pragmatism
is, and what its function is. Until we agree on what we both mean when we
discuss "pragmatism" there seems little point in discussing it.
I suspect that your understanding of pragmatism is mainly drawn from
Phaedrus's reading of James in LILA (you posted some of those quotes earlier
in this thread and your thoughts on the matter seem to echo Phaedrus's very
closely). It is my opinion that Phaedrus badly misunderstood James's
pragmatism. His deep misunderstanding causes him both to indict pragmatism
on a number of irrelevant grounds and to believe that the MOQ is a
continuation and correction of pragmatism (both claims I believe to be
mistaken). I would be happy to explain to you where and how I think
Phaedrus got it wrong if you're interested....
But what I would really recommend is getting some first hand experience
with pragmatism. Maybe go and try reading James and drawing your own
conclusions. Maybe you'll think Phaedrus got his number dead on, or maybe
you'll agree with me.... who knows.
take care,
rick
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