[MD] Rorty and Mysticism

[Matt Kundert]

Hey Ian,

Ian said:
You said your problem is relating these two [mysticism-as-poetry 
with mysticism-as-radical-empiricism] ... reconciling Dave's view 
with yours. I was simply pointing out that Rorty has already joined 
mysticism to experience for you. What (either or both of) you 
should focus on was relating poetry to experience, in order to find 
the common rhetorical ground.

Matt:
Oh, I see: I guess I didn't see that as my problem.  I have no 
problem reconciling Dave's view--or rather, radical empiricism--with 
my own view.  Dave, however, does have a problem with my 
reconciliation maneuvers (as he just expressed).

So, perhaps you're right, given what Dave just said about poetry, 
though this isn't my problem but rather his: the problem is "radical 
experience as poetry."  Poetry as the expression of human experience 
is something like what Rorty meant, and Rorty's Davidsonian 
definition of metaphor was as unintelligibility.  Combine the two, and 
you have what Rorty meant about mysticism as a kind of poetry, about 
mystical experience breaking up old ways of speaking.

Matt