From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 24 2003 - 05:04:09 GMT
DMB,
DMB said:
The appearance/reality distinction runs through all of Western Philosophy.
Its empiricism. It boils down to the simple question; how do I know if my
perceptions of the world are real? To pin this on Modernity, or to claim the
rejection of it defines postmodernity, I think, misrepresents things. If I
recall, Rorty is rejecting philosophy as a whole and the said distinction is
just one of the reasons for doing so.
Matt:
Rorty rejects representationalist philosophy, the kind that brokers on the
appearance/reality distinction, that which runs through (almost) all of
Western Philosophy. Its why I hesitate to call (new) pragmatists
empiricists. Neopragmatists don't have to answer the skeptic's question,
which an empiricist does.
DMB said:
On another note, Postmodernism has a broad enough meaning to include things
like postmodern art, architechture and literature. It is a whole set of
movements in a variety of fields. Even within philosophical postmodernism,
your definition is rather technical and extreme. Perhaps its an interesting
question and a new thread called "Pirsig the Rortyian" should be started,
but I don't think he gets to define the terms of the debate about whether or
not Pirsig is post-post or whatever.
Matt:
On the broad use of "postmodernism," its why I think Rorty hits the nail on
the head when he says, "The word 'postmodernism' has been rendered almost
meaningless by being used to mean so many different things." ("Pragmatism,
Pluralism, and Postmodernism") Its why almost every step of the way in
using "post-modern" I express my misgivings about the term. I follow Rorty
in meaning by "post-modern" a conversational sequence that goes from
Nietzsche to Heidegger to Foucault and Derrida. I think I have a right to
this meaning because we are discussing philosophy and the conversational
sequence I described is typically read in philosophy departments. So any
spill over into architecture and visual art I feel justified in ignoring
for the time being. And you are right, Rorty doesn't neccessarily get to
define the terms of the debate, but someone has to and it just so happens
that I favor his terms. However, as I said to Matt S, we are all free to
reframe. There is no essence to post-modernism, thought perhaps there are
general themes.
Matt
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