[MD] Realism and anti-realism

[Matt Kundert]

Why did Rorty write a paper, in 1986, called "Beyond Realism and Anti-Realism"?  Why did he write in 1991 that "Philosophers in the English-speaking world seem fated to end the century discussing the same topic -- realism -- which they were discussing in 1900. ... Nowadays the opposite of realism is called, simply, 'antirealism'" and then go on to say that "Dummett turned away from the 'therapeutic' conception of philosophy familiar to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, and from such earlier books as James's Pragmatism and Dewey's Reconstruction in Philosophy" ?

> dmb says:
> 
> The term "anti-realism" was coined recently by Michael Dummett, an analytic philosopher who was dealing with issues in analytic philosophy. Putnam and Rorty famously debated realism and anti-realism but, if Hildebrand is right, they were rehashing issues that James and Dewey had already dispatched. This is the same book wherein Hildebrand says that Rorty "eviscerates" pragmatism. What's my point?
> 
> You're pretending to speak for pragmatism but what you're saying is just analytic philosophy with some strains of pragmatism in it.
> 
> I know, there are Jamesian-sounding thoughts and slogans mixed into what you say, but it's oddly stripped of James's pragmatism.