[MD] Harris and Steve

[david buchanan]

Ian said to Matt:
...when he [Harris] says he favours Correspondence Theory (of Truth) over Pragmatism I interpret this two ways. (1) It's fact and truth he is corresponding, not fact and reality, or truth and reality, or language and reality. (See JC's note on conflating truth with reality, though I suspect you didn't need reminding Matt) So it's just a "pragmatic" statement he is making. Fact and truth DO correspond - by agreement - cultural, narrative, etc

dmb says:

Yea, I think that's about right. He does qualify his stance on realism. He insists it's an epistemological position, not an ontological one. (THE END OF FAITH, p278)


Ian continued:

(2) The Pragmatism he is rejecting is the "too cynical" kind - agreed for "local convenience" ... or the too nihilist ... too accommodating ... total relativist ... the kind we "might" ascribe to Rorty (as DMB does, but you don't). ... being "too pragmatic" is not the solution.  ... all I can do is repeat that, taken in the whole, I find his take pragmatic and much more subtle / sophisticated than any black and white categorical isms. If that's is "bad philosophy" academically speaking, like Pirsig (and James ?), so be it.

dmb says:

Right, at some point he says that he thinks a pragmatic case could be made against Rortyism. I can see how the Rorty fans might be suspicious about this because they're hearing it from me, but I swear it's in the endnotes quite explicitly. You can find a big chunk of them on pages 277-283. It's not hard to see why Rortyism doesn't work for Harris's project. Remember that little piece wherein Rorty says he has no way to establish his own provincialism over the provincialism of his bigoted fundamentalist students? Well, bikinis and burkhas are just as provincial, if you see what I mean. And of course the bigoted fundamentalist is Sam's main concern. 


 		 	   		  
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