From: Kevin (kevin@xap.com)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 18:23:37 GMT
ON DEWEY'S 'EXPERIENCE AND NATURE'....
Dewey begins with the observation that the world as we experience it
both individually and collectively is an admixture of the precarious,
the transitory and contingent aspect of things, and the stable, the
patterned regularity of natural processes that allows for prediction and
human intervention. Honest metaphysical description must take into
account both of these elements of experience. Dewey endeavors to do this
by an event ontology. The world, rather than being comprised of things
or, in more traditional terms, substances, is comprised of happenings or
occurrences that admit of both episodic uniqueness and general,
structured order. Intrinsically events have an ineffable qualitative
character by which they are immediately enjoyed or suffered, thus
providing the basis for experienced value and aesthetic appreciation.
Extrinsically events are connected to one another by patterns of change
and development; any given event arises out of determinant prior
conditions and leads to probable consequences. The patterns of these
temporal processes is the proper subject matter of human knowledge--we
know the world in terms of causal laws and mathematical
relationships--but the instrumental value of understanding and
controlling them should not blind us to the immediate, qualitative
aspect of events....
RICK
Catch all that? Dewey carved experience into what could accurately
be described as static and dynamic aspects and stated that both are
essential to metaphysics. He disposed of 'substance' as well as some
other traditional metaphysical concepts...like causality, and replaced
them with an 'event ontology' which sounds chillingly like Pirsig's
'quality events'. He draws attention to the 'ineffable qualitative
character' of events and explains how they are connected by patterns of
change and development...etc.
Had Pirsig found Dewey as a 'role-model' he might have avoided
'correcting' James's pragmatism into something it was specifically not
meant to be.
any thoughts?
Kevin:
My first thought is "Hot damn tamales!!"!!
Wow, what a brilliantly succint and elegent explaination of things. That
does sound remarkably like Pirsig. I guess I should really go back and
read guys I haven't read in a long time since now Pirsig will color my
readings of them. I haven't looked at Dewey in a decade and now this!!
Thanks a million!
I do agree with Squonk that there is a mystical, eastern, zen element to
Pirsig that is most definitely missing from that brief description of
Dewey. The metaphysics sounds remarkably compatible (at least from that
blurb), but I think Pirsig offers more on the side of coping skills and
lessons for living than most other pragmatists, which does make him
remarkable and so very compelling.
-Kevin
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