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RUSSELL_THE_DEW
Bertrand Russell on John Dewey's July 24, 2021
ideas about truth (aka "Logic" September 28, 2021
and Inquiry). December 4, 2021
December 27, 2021
May 13, 2022
New rule of thumb: the more
dates in the upper-right corner,
the more minor the page.
John Dewey's definition of truth was
adopted from C.S. Pierce, which is THE_TRUE_PEIRCE
essentially that The Truth is what
we're going to zero in on after
serious investigation.
Russell had some objections
to Dewey's ideas, though
I think these softened over The two of them knew each other
time... and were on friendly terms:
They were both interested in
China, and went there
independantly, met each other
and got along pretty well.
(We might infer that
Dewey kept Russell
away from his wife.)
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey/
John Dewey:
1919–21 Lectures in China
1916 John Dewey "Experimental Logic"
1938 John Dewey "Logic: A Theory of Inquiry"
1939 Bertrand Russell on the 1938 book. RUSSELLING_DEWEY_1938
1946 Bertrand Russell revisits Dewey RUSSELLING_DEWEY_1946
Gradually going through the pieces
included in the volume "The Basic
Writings of Bertrand Russell", the
light dawns that the editors were As is typical, I thought at first I
intentionally showing the evolution was making clever observations while
of Russell's thought-- I was actually being led around.
There are two pieces in a row in BASIC_RUSSELL
"Basic Writings" where Bertrand Rusell
discusses Dewey's theory of Inquiry--
Bertrand Russell's 1939 piece, to my eye,
has a bit of an edge to it-- in fact, on
my first reading I thought it was Even in the 1939 piece, Russell
positively hostile, though really that's commented approvingly on Dewey's
an exaggeration. discussions being more
well-grounded than you expect in
The 1946 piece seems much more books with "Logic" in the title.
friendly... His attitude changed, he
seemed less arrogant and dogmatic...
Then a few chapters later in "Basic Writings"
there's Russell's explanation that he feels
like he's been in a retreat from "Pythagoras".
(I'm so clever, sometimes I can see
what's put right in front of me.) PYTHAGOREAN_RETREAT
"Platonism" is the more common
term for what Bertrand Russell
associates with Pythagoras.
Bertrand gotta
Bertrand, you know.
I note that Pythegoras did
not have a name that lends
itself to -isimication like
Plato's, which may be why
many like to wave the Plato flag.
I guess you could go
with Pythagoreanism
(adjectivising a noun
so you can nounify it
again...).
So, in 1939, I think Russell was
still inclined to strongly defend his
true faith in absolute truth, but by There's an odd glitch in the
1946 he acknowledges the virtue of logical flow in the 1946
that idea of gradual evolution-- piece: as an aside, Russell
begins to explain his own
(Dewey's idea of a truth-- as understanding of Truth, but
presented by Russell-- is rooted then suddenly stops short
in Science, drawing analogies to without explaining how it can
biological evolution--) support the notion of an
evolving understanding.
In the 1939 piece, there are some
paroxysms of pedantic fussiness It would seem that Russell's
about definitions of words... but position on evolving truth was
where it all goes is simply that in the process of evolving.
Russell is uncomfortable with the
idea of a "sociological" definition Russell was perhaps
of truth... abandoning his faith in
the Absolute Truth, but
Nevertheless, much of what didn't have any coherent
truth we have is obtained substitute...
through social processes,
is it not?
PRAGMATIC_DEWEY
When you get near this subject,
every position anyone holds seems
to involve some unknowable thing
that's just presumed to exist-- an
absolute truth we can approach, RUSSELL_ALL_TRUED_UP
but never reach; a process of
approaching the truth that we can THE_INEVITABLE_META
never know if we've let run long
enough...
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