Pragmatism
This post is taken from the onegoodmove archives, and serves as an excellent introduction for the pragmatic eithics piece that follows. Stephen Covey author of the widely read, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Annoying People" has a metaphysics nearly identical to Kant. It describes the nature of the "real world" Covey argues that he knows this real world becuase multiple cultures throughout time have come to the same conclusions he has about that world. Nietzsche attacked the idea of this real world in Twilight of the Idols in the section How the Real World at last Became a Myth Chris has annotated it to address Covey's metaphysics.
Pragmatic Ethics A nice essay by Hugh LaFollette on Pragmatic Ethics. It does a good job of explaining how pragmatists such as Dewey, James and Pierce devolop their own ethical systems. It is one I share. This is a pdf file 35 pages.
Pragmatism Hillary Putnam, James Conant, Richard Rorty on Chicago Public Radio (real audio) 50min
"Relativism is what people call pragmatism who don't like it. Noboday ever calls himself a relativist, nobody defends a veiw called relativisim."—Richard Rorty
Comments
Hi Norm, I'd like to include your blog on Local Blogs, it's for progressives and is indexed on a state by state level.
Please visit and let me know what state or region within the state you'd like to registered in. Simply leave a comment on one fo the posts. http://localcgcs.org/wordpress/
Thanks :)
Posted by: local blogs | April 8, 2005 2:20 PM | Reply to this comment
"However, it clearly does not follow that since these virtues arose in all these cultures that they are a part of the real world or ‘territory’. If this were the case we would have to concede that something like slavery is a part of the territory too. Slavery arose in the American south, in Ancient Rome and Greece, and in many other cultures and times."
This is an exceptionally poor straw-man argument. The writer confuses his own assertion of the moral distastefulness of slavery with the fact that slavery can't be part of the real world because it's morally repugnant. They have nothing to do with each other; in fact, slavery and other distasteful behaviors are a part of the real world, and his last statement is an adequate demonstration of it: res ipsa loquitur.
Sorry.
Posted by: aagnot | April 10, 2005 7:51 AM | Reply to this comment
The argument here is not that slavery did not exist, but that it was not a virtue simply because many cultures viewed it that way. It seems reasonable to say that slavery is not part of a virtuous real world.
Posted by: Norm | April 10, 2005 8:47 AM | Reply to this comment
Fascinating article. Just finished it. Still thinking. Thanks.
Posted by: Pragman | April 10, 2005 9:53 AM | Reply to this comment