[MD] Harris and Steve

[Ian Glendinning]

Steve, Matt, JC, DMB,

If we are going to evaluate Harris views in ascribing isms and
theories to them then I get bored very quickly ;-)

All I will say is my reading of Harris is that his realism is very
pragmatic - I doubt he would subscribe to Rortian or Wittgensteinian
views himself - but that's irrelevant IMHO.

As DMB said,
"Show me a guy who brags about his humility, and I'll show you a guy
with no sense of irony."

I think Harris has all the right senses.
Ian

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Steven Peterson
<peterson.steve at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Matt, DMB, Ian,
>
> On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Matt Kundert
> <pirsigaffliction at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ian said:
>> When DMB says he thinks Harris is wanting to get us beyond
>> the cultural relativism, clearly he is ... but it is by
>> recognizing the cultural basis of the acceptance of "facts"
>> that we do so.
>>
>> Matt:
>> This what I don't know about Harris because I don't know
>> enough about him...I'm not sure he's Wittgensteinian or
>> Kuhnian in that sense.
>
> Steve:
> If you recall that bit in The End of Faith that you pointed out to me
> (you can find it by looking for Rorty in the index), Harris does not
> subscribe to such a view. He holds to realism and the correspondence
> theory of truth, so facts are not viewed as cuturally contingent at
> all. Facts are whatever it is about reality that our ideas are
> supposed to correspond to.
>
> DMB, I wonder if you recall the part where Harris attacks pragmatism
> and have any thoughts on it.
>
>
> Matt:
>> I think it's the stance he ought to take, but from the little
>> I've read it's unclear to me whether that is the stance he
>> wants.
>
> Steve:
> Though we both wish Harris were a pragmatist, I still wonder whether
> pragmatism would well serve his rhetorical purposes. To make the case
> he wants to make against religious faith and in favor of moral truth,
> he may be more effective posing as a realist even if he had pragmatist
> leanings. He can only be taken seriously in pop culture if he does not
> take too many radical stances at once. What do you think of that idea?
>
> Best,
> Steve
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