[MD] mindless metaphysics

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your thoughts.  It was exactly the background I was  
looking for.

If you are interested in seeing how Rorty is referenced in The End of  
Faith, read from p181 in the book store some day. He also goes into  
some greater detail in an end note to explain why he thinks  
pragmatists defeat themselves because "pragmatism amounts to a  
realistic denial of realism."

(He also only ever uses the word "moral" in a derogatory way to  
represent an ethics of religious sin and virtue.)


> In my view, one shouldn't counter the conflation of religion and  
> morality by making a positive claim about what morality _actually_ is.

That's exactly what Sam Harris does.

The most clear statement of where Sam Harris stands on ethics my be  
this:
"A rational approach to ethics becomes possible once we realize that  
questions of right and wrong are really questions about the happiness  
and suffering of sentient creatures."

He claims to be an ethical realist.

Regards,
Steve