Rorty recognizes particular contingencies and enjoys writing that our traditions did not have to be this particular way. He loves individual idiosyncrasies.
His critics generally argue that Rorty is missing the role of general necessities. Rorty often implies that since things could have been otherwise, then everything goes. He fails to see that we can't have just anything go since not everything will go. There are general constraints on what memes we use.
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This is not a diary. I am capturing ideas and developing some thoughts. I hope to have three good ideas.
7 comments:
I think the response pragmatists would give is that "everything does go". Putting some sort of universal principle as a barrier for Naziism isn't going to work any better than saying that the Nazis had bad intentions and logically flawed arguments that were propelled through propaganda.
Interesting muse though.
Canadian Pragmatist, everything does not go. Try changing a tire using only a light bulb as your tool. It just won't work. The world has actual constraints that have nothing to do with Nazis.
I understand that, but there is no absolute law that says that one tire is better than another. There may be better and worse tires, but every tire is on the table as an option.
Also, you can hardly compare morality to changing tires.
http://reaching-oblivion.blogspot.com/
Canadian Pragmatist, notice that you used moral language to describe your tires -- some are better than others. That is a value judgment based upon real qualities of a real world. Try again.
Tires, as opposed to morality? I don't think good and bad are fake, unquantifiable, and not in the real world.
Morality is as real as anything else. Maybe abstract, but nevertheless real. There may be no golden system for measuring good and bad, but we can roughly claim that something is better than something else.
Tires are measured as good or bad by price, durability, look, quality, etc... and depending on weather and a whole list of other variables. Morality has different obstacles, but is nevertheless tangible and quantifiable (at least by some standard). Tire standards problably vary more than moral standards.
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