[MD] Realism and anti-realism

[Steven Peterson]

On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 4:59 PM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Let me be more specific, you and/or Bernstein are characterizing an idea that I basically agree with; that our philosophical positions are psychologically motivated. And yet I shudder at the characterization of it as "just cover" on a par with "belching". When I read stuff like that, I detect a certain kind of misanthropic cynicism and nihilism and that makes me shudder. A perfectly good idea is suddenly transformed into something I hate, that produces a slight feeling of nausea.


Matt said both belching and philosophy are responses to life. dmb,
being a rather poor reader, concludes that Matt must think that
belching and philosophy are on a par, i.e., that doing philosophy is
no better than belching. Matt said that for pragmatists, beliefs are
habits of action therefore philosophical positions are covers for sets
of habits. dmb, with his usual difficulties in reading comprehension,
concludes that Matt thinks that philosophy itself is just cover.