From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 02:54:46 GMT
I've changed the subject line with hopes in mind. To repeat myself in
different terms, it seems that the pragmatists have provided a solution to
some problem, but I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. I mean,
answers don't make much sense unless we know what the question was, right?
This is why I've asked about Glenn's comment. He seems to be somewhere near
it here....
> Glenn said:
> James lived in a time when philosophy was dominated by metaphysical
beliefs
> that claimed the existence of timeless and absolute truths that could be
> established by rational arguments,...
>
> DMB asked:
> James lived in a time when philosophy was dominated by metaphysical
beliefs?
> I'm very curious about this. Please explain.
I'd also ask what, dear reader, you make of these little nuggets.
Pragmatism is best understood in its historical and cultural context. It
arose during a period of rapid scientific advancement, industrialization,
and material progress; a time when the theory of evolution suggested to many
thinkers that humanity and society are in a perpetual state of progress.
Pragmatism sought a middle ground between traditional metaphysical ideas
about the nature of reality, and the radical theories of nihilism and
irrationalism which had become popular in Europe at that time.
According to their critics, the pragmatist's refusal to affirm any absolutes
carried negative implications for society; that it challenged the
foundations of religion and government, and threatened a decline in moral
standards.
In the early 19th century, classical German idealists (J G Fichte, F W J
Schelling, G W F Hegel) rejected Kant's limitation on human knowledge.
Notable also in the 19th century are the pessimistic atheism of Arthur
Schopenhauer the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sren Kierkegaard, which led
towards 20th-century existentialism the pragmatism of William James and John
Dewey and the neo-Hegelianism at the turn of the century (F H Bradley, T H
Green, Josiah Royce).
Among 20th-century movements are logical positivism (Rudolf Carnap, Karl
Popper, Alfred Ayer) neo-Thomism, the revival of the medieval philosophy of
Aquinas (Jacques Maritain) existentialism (Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers,
Jean-Paul Sartre) phenomenology (Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty) and
analytical and linguistic philosophy (Bertrand Russell, G E Moore, Ludwig
Wittgenstein, Gilbert Ryle, Willard Quine). Under the influence of Russell's
work on formal logic and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations,
English-speaking philosophers have paid great attention to the nature and
limits of language, in particular in relation to the language used to
formulate philosophical problems.
It seems to me that pragmatism is some kind of opposite to existentialism,
which tended to be expressed in literary forms. This notion seems
interesting because Pirsig claims the MOQ is in the pragmatic tradition, yet
it is presented in the form of a novel and is very much concerned with the
nature of being. He seems to take it all in without contradiction.
Thanks for your time,
DMB
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jan 20 2003 - 02:55:45 GMT