[MD] On Pragmatism

[skutvik at online.no]

Platt, and all "fishes" in this pond.

16 Mach you wrote::

> Excellent summary of pragmatism in today's NY Times by Stanley Fish.
> The last few sentences should be enough to lure you into reading the
> full article:

    "When pragmatism tells us there are no first principles, it not 
    only disqualifies itself as a source of guidance and justification; 
    it disqualifies the whole enterprise (of philosophy), at least in its 
    more ambitious forms. What it leaves are the pleasures of 
    doing philosophy, the pleasures of thinking about thinking 
    freed from the burdensome expectation that we will finally get 
    somewhere. Now there's an advantage and a gift to boot." 
    (parens added)  

> According to Fish, pragmatists would dismiss the MOQ's first principle
> of universal Quality

IMO all "isms" are part of the intellectual level's "philosophology"  that 
had its origin in Greece and what was called SOM in ZAMM and which 
the Quality Ideas was supposed to be a relief from. Thus pragmatism, 
non-pragmatism, radical pragmatism ...etc. makes no difference, none 
will recognize the MOQ. 

"First principles"!? There are no lack of such. Look to Ham's system 
where Essence is a first principle yet is mired in SOMish by the fact 
that even Essence springs from a subjective mind and as such his 
Essentialism is a(nother)  theory ABOUT reality. The fact that there is 
no subject/object - mind/matter - divide in the MOQ. That it only 
arrived with the intellectual levels is still not grasped.  

Principles versus no principles" is an intern intellectual - academical - 
disagreement, and the MOQ was meant to be a bomb under 
Academy. At least by Phaedrus, but Pirsig of LILA started a disastrous 
flirt with Academy, God knows for what reason, I thought for a long 
while that he thought "....if I only can get a foot inside I can explode the 
Quality bomb in their faces" But. no,  it proved false. Pirsig  arrived at 
the Liverpool and received Dr McWatt's thesis  graciously and 
declared DMB to be his heir. It's come to this. 

OK enough

Bodvar