Questions tagged [pragmatism]
The pragmatism tag has no usage guidance.
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Is it true that we draw conclusions about the existence of other minds with the help of pragmatism and empiricism?
Does science have any separate arguments for the existence of other minds?
Here it is said that we believe in the existence of other minds and the external world thanks to informal empiricism that ...
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How do you respond to this common critique of American Pragmatism?
I frequently argue the virtues of anti-epistemological pragmatism(neopragmatism) with people who hold more traditional epistemological views. The most common argument that I hear is:
Well, if we take ...
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The Pragmatic Maxim as a Maxim of Logic? [closed]
Why does the Wikipedia entry on the pragmatic maxim describe it as a "maxim of logic"?
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Evaluative Nihilism (1) : If everything in the world has no objective value, will it have the meaning of having an objective value of zero? [closed]
Let’s talk about an idea from Professor Michael Hauskeller. He says that nothing in the world has an objective value (See note 2*) . If we think about this as everything having a neutral objective ...
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Positive well-being or the absence of values: does it matter what to choose?
In his paper, “If Nothing Matters” (2016), Guy Kahane discusses evaluative nihilism, which is plainly described by him as:
“Nothing is good or bad. All evaluative propositions are false.”
Prof. ...
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Rorty's Pragmatism
When I've heard famous philosophers speak or read their writing, I have usually been impressed by their reasoning and insight even if I didn't agree with them. Richard Rorty is an exception. I ...
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Does the paradox of tolerance mean that intolerance cannot be allowed in a tolerant society?
Rainer Forst describes tolerance as a social norm. So intolerant people and groups violate the social contract by denying the social norm of tolerance. See Hobbes, Locke, Kant et al on social contract....
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Why not move from proof numbers to theories instead of theories to proof numbers?
In mathematics, they do this thing where they figure out what are called "proof-theoretic ordinals" (see this section of the SEP article on proof theory for background details) of theories, ...
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Where is the Ethics in Deep Ecology?
Norwegian philosopher and activist Arne Naess (1912–2009) is credited as a pioneer of the environmental movement and the first to coin the term "deep ecology." Distinguishing between deep ...
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Is predictive power a criterion for pragmatism?
Is predictive power a criterion for pragmatism?
In inference to the best explanation, one of the criteria is prognostic power.
Does this criterion refer to pragmatism?
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How shall I understand these two "oppositions": pragmatism against idealism, positivism against irrationalism?
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-philosophy/The-19th-century says
As for the 19th century, however, if one single feature of its thought could be singled out for emphasis, it might be called ...
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What is the place of early pragmatism in analytic philosophy?
What is the place of early pragmatism (James, Dewey, Peirce) in analytic philosophy?
To break down the question: is early pragmatism considered as part of analytic philosophy; does it have a lot of ...
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How do proponents of the correspondence theory of the truth respond to hypothetical counter-factuals?
The vast majority of philosophers today subscribe to the correspondence theory of the truth, that the truth is correspondence to the reality. Two other theories of the truth are the coherence theory ...
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Can morality based in pragmatism delay moral progress?
I read a recent paper about trophy hunting. In it, the authors have a footnote that argues against people who oppose trophy hunting on the basis that it is absolutely wrong.
The authors write:
"...
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In which respects Quine was a pragmatist?
Quine is a representative of the analytic philosophy, a naturalist, a materialist, a robust realist, an empiricist, and a behaviourist.
Additionnally, Quine is often regarded as a pragmatist (Godfrey‐...
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Pragmatism vs Truth: Does evolution prioritise one over the other?
Pragmatism:
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found ...
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Can you be objectively offended?
Example:
Person A is talking to person B and uses a phrase that B is offended by. Person A is unapologetic because they personally don't take offense to that phrase and feel taking offense to it is ...
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Is the overlap between Yoneda's lemma and Peirce's pragmatic maxim known?
In philosophy, particularly in ethics, the pragmatic maxim (WP) states that an object may be considered solely in terms of its effects on the surrounding context. In the special case of ethics, the ...
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Is there an “algorithm” philosophy? Perhaps between relativism and pragmatism?
I’m looking for philosophy that has the agent as central in characterizing knowledge, but is not as relative as relativism as knowledge will come from algorithms, and before pragmatism. I don’t think ...
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Modeling of persuasion [closed]
I'd like to set out a model of how the mind changes its beliefs based on persuasive evidence, and I'm interested to know what work has been done similar to this.
Borrowing some of the terminology of ...
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Does anyone know where the following ideas are found in Peirce's collected works?
The following excerpt is from the book "Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It":
Charles Sanders Peirce [...] argued that our ideas are a response to problems that we ...
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Did Bertrand Russell foresee, in 1943, the 21st century’s propensity to assign factuality to whatever information one finds most comfortable?
I recently read a short paragraph in Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy” which stunned me—it was the shock of recognition—to the extent that I put down the book and stared into space for a good ...
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What Richard Rorty understands by science?
I just read Philosophy and social hope, a collection of essays by Richard Rorty. Except for the excess of academicism, I can say I’m definitely inspired by it and happy with the discussions it threw ...
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What Does Dewey Mean By Educational "Aims" and "Ends"
In Chapter 8 of Democracy and Education, Dewey begins to discuss aims in education. He starts off by defining the nature of aims.
At first I was under the impression that he was referring to the goals ...
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Is there a name for this theory of truth?
I am wondering if there is a name for the following theory of truth, which I might call "persuasionism."
Truth, for an individual, is the set of beliefs that individual would eventually, in ...
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Where does Moore admit that no one really knows the truth about those propositions that supposedly we all know?
Alfred Jules Ayer, in a conference where he exposes the achievements of Moore, starts it by saying:
"It is true that Moore diminishes the force of his position by adding that no one knows the ...
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Varieties of Evidentialism (Prudential, Moral, Epistemic)
re section 5 of this SEP https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-belief/#VarEvi
I understand each has different aims, but I dont see how does the meaning of evidence and Evidentialism change in each ...
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Query the salient differences between the neo pragmatistism of Richard Rorty and Hillary Putnam (may they RIP)
While I have over the years read most of what Richard Rorty and Hillary Putnam have “popularly” written/edited [that is aside from their scholarly treatises in academic journals that have for years ...
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How has Analytic Philosophy Survivied Quine's Criticism?
Analytic philosophy and techniques, in which philosophy is approached as a primarily linguistic and logic exercise, has been the dominant mode of philosophy in the Anglo-American world for most of the ...
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Did any philosopher promote a “pure” pragmatic conception of truth?
William James often associated truth with usefulness (utility), but overall his conception of truth was not pure in this regard. It shares some elements of the correspondence and coherence theory. For ...
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Which Philosopher would you recommend for learning about the implied philosophy of gifted education?
I'm searching for a philosopher who either commented on gifted education or someone whose writings would critique/applaud gifted education in America. Someone who might be (or have been) a vocal ...
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Can you identify a philosophical argument involving Lifeboats? (Not 'Lifeboat Ethics')
long time since I studied philosophy. I'm trying to remember an argument / thought experiment that went something like, "lifeboats are placed throughout a ship and not just by the wealthy passenger ...
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What is 'Pragmatic Encroachment'?
Question
What is 'Pragmatic Encroachment'?
Overview
I tried to read
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/#PragEncr
but it was too dense + wordy (too many unnecessary complex ...
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Social Response to Legal/Moral Duty Violation
When a person, especially a public figure, has committed a serious legal or moral violation, there is a tendency for friends/clients/companies/etc. to dissociate from that individual, even if the ...
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How do pragmatists avoid this modal argument against their view of truth?
I am reading Harry Gensler's Introduction to Logic (Routledge, 2002) and doing exercise 1 of 7.3b in the "Basic Modal Logic" chapter. I think I follow the steps. The answer is in the book.
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Meaning in use and naturalisation of intentionality
What is the relation between pragmatism and intentionality?
Two different enterprises in philosophy seem to be well established and yet contradicting:
Inferential Pragmatism: from Wittgenstein and ...
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Is there any normative theory within pragmatic ethics?
I've read wikipedia's article on pragmatic ethics and it does not produce any norms. Rather, it is only a template for normative ethical theories, like how deontology is a template and CI is a real ...
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Is philosophy a waste of time? [duplicate]
Philosophy has not advanced very far since Ancient Greece and Rome and every philosophical point of view, when extended, becomes absurd.
Meanwhile, in little more than 3 centuries, and mostly in the ...
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Why would philosophical agnosticism and pragmatic atheism be considered more rational than philosophical agnosticism and pragmatic theism?
I'm referring to the accepted answer on this post. The answerer states that
If one is both attentive to empirical scientific studies and to philosophical investigations of the limits of knowledge, ...
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Has pragmatism really been motivated to move away from necessity? Has it succeeded?
According to pragmatists, in ages of yesteryear the philosophical project aimed at determining the ultimate foundation of knowledge. Interspersed throughout history have been reactions to this ...
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William James' definition of truth and rightheousness
In "The Meaning of Truth", William James advances the following:
"The true is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as the right is only the expedient in the way of our behaving"
What ...
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Is there a conflict between upholding rational justification and seeing societal norms as its ultimate source?
Societal norms in many philosophical schools has come to be seen as the end-all determinant of rational life.
This attitude is displayed by Richard Rorty when he says "truth is simply a compliment ...
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Would a pragmatist allow that meaning is representational of things in its use?
Pragmatism contends that use should be stressed when talking about the meaning of words before 'representation'.
But what if we were to look at signification/representation as a sort of activity?
If ...
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How is the conflict between created by reason and external aspects of knowledge resolved?
Pragmatism is, roughly, the stressing of actions in talking about the content of knowledge.
Externalism is, roughly, the stressing of dependence on the external public world in talking about ...
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Does Brandom remain faithful to a Kantian autonomous intellect when he invokes Hegel?
There is a paradox about self-legislating norms that if the norms are self-legislated, they are not binding. In order to avoid this paradox, Brandom turns to Hegel's point that "normative statuses ...
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Is Brandom's account of history satisfactory to justify itself against doubts?
Brandom's idealism is multi-faceted and complicated. A rough summary of it might be as follows:
Rationality is a conceptual normality, a typical way we do things. Specifically, it is a practical ...
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Are anti-realists faced with a point where they have to take for granted the referential function of words to things that are not words?
Pragmatism is strongly associated with anti-realism, the view that words are meaningful not because they represent a reality independent of the word itself but because of how they are used in a given ...
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How do pragmatists explain how words attach to things in reality?
If I'm feeling particularly despotic I can tell my daughter to go pick me up an apple in the dining room. A couple of seconds later and I am greeted with the thunk of an apple dropping on my lap.
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Is Peirce's pragmatic maxim self-evident?
Peirce's pragmatic maxim seems to have an appeal, at least as a "tiebreaker":
Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have....
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How is self-reference understood in the pragmatist tradition?
Gödel and Tarski's works have been especially influential in the pragmatist tradition, but what exactly did their theorems usher in?
What is left of self-reference in the pragmatist tradition?
More ...
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