[MD] Philosophy and Abstraction

[david buchanan]

dmb said:
... We should be able to move forward knowing that Pirsig and James are offering Pragmatism and Radical empiricism as an alternative to those things [representationalism, correspondence, Platonism]. In that sense, we all share the same enemy. By transferring Rorty's anti-Platonism into this context, you just end up making enemies where there aren't any, see?

Steve said:
That's not the issue. You've got it twisted. Matt and I obviously don't see Pirsig and James as enemies. Far from it. The issue is that you seem to see Rorty and anyone else as an enemy who doesn't embrace the terms "direct" or "pure" or "primary" with regard to experience.

dmb says:
Huh? If you are not refusing to embrace Pirsig's terms for anti-Platonic reasons, then what reasons do you have? And if you're refusing to embrace Pirsig's anti-Platonism because of Rorty's anti-Platonism, then how is that not a mix up?
I'm saying that you and Matt have no legitimate anti-Platonic reasons to reject those terms. Seriously, what OTHER reason can you cite? If Platonism isn't the problem with those terms, then what is the problem? 
And may I remind you that these terms refer to Quality? If you refuse to accept those terms, you've rejected the whole MOQ in a very big way. So I don't think this issue is at all trivial.