From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 14 2003 - 22:45:21 BST
Platt,
Steve said:
Based on what I've read so far, there is much evidence that Rorty is not the Communist that Platt seems to think he is and is rather a liberal Democrat.
Platt said:
Is there a difference? :-)
Matt:
Careful Mr. Demagogue ;-)
Also, I wouldn't say that Rorty is a Democrat. Better to say that he's a reformist leftist. The problem that Rorty would have is, well, the Democrats suck, though, being a leftist, they are still better than the Republicans (and a helluvalot better than right extremists). I've never seen Rorty publicly identify with the Democrats, though I wouldn't be surprised if he did out of leftist solidarity. Rorty's enough of a realist to know that politics are dirty and that some sort of left (even if they keep moving to the right) is better than no left.
Platt said:
Since Rorty claims to have no principles, you have to wonder why he says he "prefers" one thing over another. On what basis does he "prefer" other than his whim of the moment?
Matt:
Ah, now the philosophical demagoguery begins. I acutally don't wonder about this at all. But I've answered this so many times (quite recently, too, if a month ago counts as recent (i.e. the discussion about hierarchies)) that I refuse to get into with Platt. Platt clearly refuses to believe me, and I haven't thought of a new way of trying to persuade Platt, so our conversation would simply be a rehash of old conversations.
(I know I've said on more than one occasion that "I refuse to get into this with so-and-so because I've been over it such-and-such number of times," but the fact is I would get into it again if I could think of new ways to persuade. That's what academics like Rorty do quite often. Rorty's been singing the same philosophical tune for 30 years now. The reason he's written so much is that he continues to think of new ways to put the same pragmatist point. This is exactly what is required, too. Different people will be persuaded by different things. People like Platt and I rarely agree on the terms of debate, so I can only try new narratives and "arguments" to try and persuade Platt that his way of thinking isn't as _preferable_ as mine. So, just count my refusal as lack of ingenuity.)
Matt
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