From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 21:57:17 BST
Paul,
Paul said:
Is that a pragmatist "deliberate misreading"?
"The use of strong misreadings is part of an attempt to heroize and
villianize certain thinkers or groups in the construction of your own
narrative of what's going on." [Matt Kundert, Confessions of a Fallen
Priest]
It might help to point that out in advance; without doing so I think
deliberate misreading becomes misrepresentation doesn't it?
Matt:
I think I've always been pretty upfront about my intentions with Pirsig. Usually there are indicator words I use that help spell out whether I'm reconstructing Pirsig's intentions or spelling out my own, whether I'm doing biography or philosophy.
Matt said:
...a reading that weeds out all of the bad, Kantian philosophy and
leaves the good, pragmatist philosophy.
Paul said:
Hey everyone, for an illustration of a common pragmatist accusation, this is a classic case of "begging-the-question".
Matt:
Well, the accusation isn't really common to pragmatists, just philosophers who are talking past each other. Its common to me because I'm often trying to mark out the metaphilosophical ground. And that wasn't begging the question, that was making a judgment (unless you think all judgments are question begging). Begging the question would be like saying I'm representing Quality wrongly. I'm not representing it wrong because I'm not trying to represent it at all. I don't think Quality has an essence to represent.
Or, conversely, it would be like me saying to Platt that his description of Quality as an Absolute is a poor description. Platt's not trying to give a good description of Quality, he's trying to give the Correct Description of Quality (it just so happens that the Correct Description would dovetail with the better description).
Matt
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