[MD] Demanding Evidence From Theists

[Steven Peterson]

Hi DMB,
Steve said:

I don't think anyone has any problem with truth as "agreement with
experience." The problems only arise when someone wants to have a theory of
truth--an account of what this agreement must be like in order to say
something is true. Since no one has ever been able to do that in such a way
as to provide a method for distinguishing true beliefs from false ones,
having a theory of truth or not is the sort of difference that doesn't make
a difference that a Jamesian should want to drop.

dmb says:

That only points out one more important difference between Rorty and the
classical pragmatist. Rorty thinks we pragmatists shouldn't have a theory of
truth but as James, Pirsig, Dewey and I see it, pragmatism IS a theory of
truth.

Steve:

I don't deny that such philosophers have called it that. The question is
whether they *should* call it that. You didn’t bother to address the concern
that having a theory of truth or not is exactly the sort of philosophical
non-issue that James should want to call a difference that makes no
difference when none of the proposed candidates for so-called  “theories of
truth” give us any way of distinguishing true beliefs from false ones.



dmb had said:...what was that quote from Pirsig? Something like...The
scientific method is the way nature keeps us from thinking something is true
when it isn't - or something like that.



Steve replied:

That doesn't sound like Pirsig to me.

dmb says:

I'm worried that Pirsig and Rorty are getting rather blurred in your mind.
Here's the actual quote with some context. As you can see, my paraphrase
wasn't too shabby...

"The real purpose of scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn't misled
you into thinking you know something you don't actually know. …" (ZAMM,
chapter 9)

Steve:
Not too shabby only if you don’t see an important difference between
asserting that the scientific method is nature’s way of keeping us honest
(as it sounded to me like you were saying) and asserting that the scientific
method is one way of using reality to pursue some of our own particular
human desires.

Best,
Steve