Re: SUO: RE: RE: Re: Missing Ingredients
Tom Johnston wrote:
> Hi Murray:
>
> I do think realism/nominalism is the basic issue. For example, Richard Rorty
> (whose work Brandom continues) characterizes himself as a pragmatist, but
> what has analytic philosophers so angry at him is his "relativism". So is
> the issue objectivism vs. relativism? Pragmatism vs picture theories?
>
> The terminological contrasting pairs proliferate, and make discussion
> difficult. Rorty's "relativism" is nominalism, in its linguistic philosophy
> manifestation of a realization that the correct naming relationship between
> language and reality cannot be the right account of what makes true
> statements true because we can never get outside our language to see if our
> statements do or do not correctly name chunks of reality. If we deny that,
> we are realists. Pragmatists are those who finesse the issue; as Rorty puts
> it, those who claim that "truth is not an object of inquiry".
Tom,
Hot damn! I suppose it's not a huge surprise that there'd be
some philosophy-conversant people on this list, but it's nice
to see someone hit back with the philo-sledge. :-)
I'm still trying to understand Rorty, and just bought "Rorty
and his Critics", ed. by Brandom, and have read the intro. I
would be hesitant to make any statements about Rorty myself
at this point, as I think he's been widely understood. But
if you have a chance to or have already read the intro to
Brandom's "Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to
Inferentialism", I did, and found compelling his approach to
the various schools of thought and their differences. I don't
think nominalism and approaches to epistemology that are
linguistically based are the same thing. Apples and oranges,
to me.
Anyway, for right now I've gotta get some work done (this
has been a "productive" week for me in email, but not on
my Ph.D. work). I hope to continue this again, but I'd
at least say I'm glad to hear you're interested in the
epistemological issues surrounding SUO, even as you have
a more pressing, practical need for real application. As
we all likely do.
Cheers,
Murray
......................................................................
Murray Altheim http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK .
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