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MENAND_HAACKED

                                        January 20, 2010

The kind of things that Menand was
saying in "Pragmatism" (1997) that
Susan Haack objected to:

  "Menand's 'pragmatism' is 'an effort
  to unhitch human beings from what
  pragmatists regard as a useless              Fans of Richard Rorty
  structure of bad abstractions'; the          don't get much respect
  idea that 'what people believe to be         in some circles...
  true is just what they think it is
  good to believe to be true'; that                   RORTY
  'the whole force of a philosophical
  account of anything ... lies in the
  advertised [sic] consequences of         I'm not sure what makes
  accepting it'; that 'if we do what       "advertised" so sic.  It seems
  is right, the metaphysics will take      meant as a synonym for "well
  care of themselves.'  Rortyism is        known"-- a rather dicey notion
  vulgar pragmatism; this is vulgar        to embed in one's philosophy,
  Rortyism."                               but then, aren't they all?

         Susan Haack,                           (She didn't think it was
         "New Criterion", Nov 1997              spelled with a "z", did she?)

         [ref]

In general she complains about Menand
dismissing Charles S. Peirce... it is
true that something seems a little
lacking in Menand's discussion of
Peirce's philosophy in "The
Metaphysical Club".  He's strong on           Peirce discovered some of the
Peirce's personal quirks and history,         basic principles of logic used
less so on his ideas.                         regularly in the design of
                                              digitial circuitry.
      MENAND_PIERCED
                                              He developed a "theory of signs"
   It seems clear to me that                  ("semiotics") that was one of
   of Menand's four horsemen                  the grandaddies of the
   of pragmatism, Peirce was                  post-modern intellectual craze
   the most brilliant... if                   of the 80s.
   perhaps also the most
   problematic.                               He coined the term "pragmatism",
                                              but favored a version of it that
                                              was intended to avoid degenerating
                                              into relativism.

                                                 That last is relevant to
                                                 the issue at hand, and
                                                 it's what I'd like to
                                                 read more about.

                                                 Menand seems to be
                                                 objecting largely to
                                                 Peirce's religiosity-- it
       ABSOLUTISTS_COCOANUT                      does not seem to me that
                                                 that settles the issue.

    Menand quotes G.K. Chesterton's              Religious conviction
    objection that pragmatism is                 is one reason one
    clearly not a pragmatically                  might object to pure
    satisfactory philosophy,                     relativism, but hardly
    reporting that Dewey was                     the only one...  and a
    overjoyed by this remark, and                strategy intended to
    regarded it as giving the game               prop up one absolute
    away.                                        might very well be
                                                 portable to another.

       True enough...

                     RELIGIOUS_ORDER

       But it remains a good
       objection... it's an                         MENAND_PIERCED
       axe that swings in both
       directions.

       If we're to judge ideas by
       their consequences, then we
       also must judge that idea by
       it's consequences.



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