[MD] Philosophy and Abstraction

[John Carl]

A good metaphysics, like a good rodeo,  a good marriage, or a musical
instrument when played to the pitch of perfection, becomes more than what it
started out to be. It is effort transformed into effortlessness; a balance
becomes grace, the way love goes deep into friendship.

--Gretel Ehrlich. tweaked a bit by John

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Matt Kundert <pirsigaffliction at hotmail.com
> wrote:

>
> "I think at the heart of the difference between philosophers attracted
> to the classical pragmatists but repelled by Rorty is the thought that
> radical empiricism returns us to the scene of life, a counter to
> abstract philosophical sterilities. I can empathize with the
> formulation, to the idea of pragmatism "returning us to the scene of
> life," a formula I've grown fond of. However, what I think we should
> rather say in most cases, is that philosophy is abstract by nature--that's
> what it is--and returning to the scene of life is something that people
> need to figure out how to do, not necessarily philosophies, or other
> abstract activities. For instance, why would we necessarily want
> theoretical physics to do so? Philosophy is Dewey's indirect
> experience--returning to life is knowing, as Wittgenstein put it, when
> to put philosophy down."
>
> --from "Quine, Sellars, Empiricism, and the Linguistic Turn"
>
> http://pirsigaffliction.blogspot.com/2009/04/quine-sellars-empiricism-and-linguistic.html
>
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