From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Dec 01 2003 - 19:00:00 GMT
Wim,
Wim said:
Your description demonstrated quite convincingly that at least your (personal) beliefs are organized in quite a trivial way. In other words: they are quite unorganized and appear to depend on coincidences.
Matt:
Meh, I have a way with honesty that other people lack. But, I will say this: there is a difference between a genealogy of beliefs (which I supplied) and a systematic, organizational flow chart (which I still refuse to try and construct). My beliefs are less unorganized then they are simply organized implicitly and sometimes unconsciously. Anyone who does philosophy for any length of time can't help but organize their beliefs in a fashion more explicit then most, but the one thing I doubt is the necessary utility of a flow chart, which is what it sounded like you wanted.
And pragmatists don't say "coincidence," they say "contingent circumstances," which is the only way they could figure out anybody would get their beliefs and begin organizing them. Pragmatists don't think there is any necessary order of reasons or ways in which you can or should organize your beliefs. Each way is as circumstatial and ad hoc as the next.
Wim said:
So yes, the questions as I formulated them may be unimportant as a way of organizing personal beliefs and experience. I'm not so sure however if they are also unimportant as a way of organizing collective beliefs and experience, the intellectual patterns of value that we share with lots of other people despite the trivial differences between our beliefs and experiences.
Matt:
Actually, I think what I'm saying is the other way around. The questions as you formulated _are_ important for you personally _because_ of your personal experiences. For you, they are specific and forceful because of your own personal genealogy. For everyone else, though, I think those questions might lack enough broad appeal because they are so general. But what the hell do I know? Maybe they could. My doubt stems from the fact that I think philosophy in general is too out of place in today's culture, and I don't think that necessarily a bad thing (though most here would probably disagree). I would want politics placed at the center of most people's belief structure, a sense of participation and solidarity with their fellow citizens, not philosophy which I think a more personal obsession.
Matt
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