tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post3219510195386101837..comments2023-06-07T08:50:33.280-05:00Comments on Immanent Transcendence: How Pragmatists Commit Hubriskhadimirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-76240513574803412092012-08-22T16:09:38.799-05:002012-08-22T16:09:38.799-05:00ah sooner or later you will run into an undergrad ...ah sooner or later you will run into an undergrad with a well-worn copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance clutched in his hand (not a bad summer read actually), I too think that the way of the future springs from Dewey and many of my favorite writers/researchers like Paul Rabinow and Alva Noe agree:<br />http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~noe/an_articles.html<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-43159102508292358532012-08-22T15:52:32.074-05:002012-08-22T15:52:32.074-05:00DMF,
I suspect that if I knew Pirsig I would have...DMF,<br /><br />I suspect that if I knew Pirsig I would have more to say. Never even heard of the name. Dewey rejected Freud's theory of the unconscious and probably wouldn't be swayed by his inheritors. For the most part, I'm with Dewey on this. In practice, the differences need not be that stark. Rather than talk about the unconscious as a quasi-separate realm, I would talk about habituated semiotic systems (cultural habituation of thought). The differences need not be that great, depending upon one's interpretation of psychoanalysis. The big difference for Dewey, and likely for me, is that he refused to grant autonomous power to a subconscious realm of mind. That said, I argue that people are far more fragmented, and irrevocably so, than Dewey wants to admit. And most of his subsequent scholars are still following his lead, though I think it's slowly tipping back as the scholars are looking for new things to say to push out more articles. (Yes, I am implying that material practices are altering the theoretical landscape, which is wholly Deweyan of me.) If I knew more Derrida I might be able to make this connection, which is where I think you're going with "phenomenology" (and post-phenomenology). And yes, what I'm talking about is equivalent to a "cognitive bias," though far, far more detailed.<br /><br />I think classical pragmatism/americanism still has much to offer, especially with the metaphysical-epistemic linkage of experience and nature.khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-41431194322253388492012-08-22T15:18:13.655-05:002012-08-22T15:18:13.655-05:00the arc of the piece was from Nietzsche to Pirsig ...the arc of the piece was from Nietzsche to Pirsig (the blog author thinks that Pirsig is a updated {new-age?} dancing Wu Li master version of William James), and I don't think that these folks share the same confidence/faith in the publics' capacity to find some objective "Quality" in/of experiences, to be tuned into the Way of things...<br />yes, Dewey lacks our contemporary sense of the un-conscious processes but I think the key is not in dated ideas of repression but in phenomenology and cognitive biases.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-78475202455566799842012-08-20T14:36:56.458-05:002012-08-20T14:36:56.458-05:00Yes, I have that view, and I think Santayan's ...Yes, I have that view, and I think Santayan's criticism of Dewey not entirely unmerited. "Home vistas" is what Deweyan inquiry can ever so easily become, but given the limitations of nature and human nature, I do not think that we can do much better than the general outline given by Dewey.<br /><br />I'm still curious about what in that post makes you think that something less reserved is occuring. My principle criticisms are hermeneutic and pseudo-psychoanalytic (there is something like an unconscious that Dewey neglects).khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-4370088621453783102012-08-18T19:23:48.006-05:002012-08-18T19:23:48.006-05:00I see I thought that you had a more reserved, even...I see I thought that you had a more reserved, even Santayana like, take on Dewey's faith in experience to overcome the undercurrents of our trieb-ishness , but if my error has born some fruits via your reading list than all is well, cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-14233792186246465912012-08-18T12:49:59.731-05:002012-08-18T12:49:59.731-05:00DMF,
I'm confused. Reading that post, I am qu...DMF,<br /><br />I'm confused. Reading that post, I am quite impressed at its quality, especially since it mentions a few key points that no superficial reader of Dewey would likely note. Why does the post need a "life guard," i.e., someone to save it from something? Who needs saving? From what? Seems like all is good.<br /><br />I have added the blog to my list of reading, as it looks interesting.khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-62356777254511365772012-08-18T12:43:57.450-05:002012-08-18T12:43:57.450-05:00Thanks, DMF. I'll take a look. Whenever I play...Thanks, DMF. I'll take a look. Whenever I play lifeguard, I usually do a bad job.khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-67832866524775490562012-08-18T12:07:08.475-05:002012-08-18T12:07:08.475-05:00don't know if you want to play lifeguard in th...don't know if you want to play lifeguard in the shallow-end of the blogosphere but if you have some interest in public service you might want to wade in @:<br />http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2012/08/18/nietzsche-pragmatism-and-the-fact-value-distinction/<br /><br />-dmfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-56637205787930412772012-08-10T10:36:28.018-05:002012-08-10T10:36:28.018-05:00http://newbooksinphilosophy.com/2012/05/15/paul-th...http://newbooksinphilosophy.com/2012/05/15/paul-thagard-the-cognitive-science-of-science-explanation-discovery-and-conceptual-change-mit-press-2012/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-24348138389613332312012-08-04T08:34:10.366-05:002012-08-04T08:34:10.366-05:00DMF,
We agree then: habits, etc. are *not* separa...DMF,<br /><br />We agree then: habits, etc. are *not* separable, and that is my point. Hence, my recent article was a pragmatic theory of imagination that explained the structural limits of imagination from a Deweyan framework. The point was that Deweyan pragmatism is not even internally consistent on the point, and that they presume more agency and imaginative powers than is defensible. Classical pragmatist types think that "plasticity" can solve any problem since we can imagine our way around it. I'm less familiar with the details of the continental arguments, but I do think that Butler et al are overly optimistic, though I suspect that the optimism is rhetorical, and that Butler, for instance, would admit it if asked personally.<br /><br />I do not think you should worry about being unrepetant. The local blogosphere is energized with the promise of tomorrow without having established itself sufficiently for those who are not already caught up in certain continental discourses.khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-88068687133258086862012-08-04T08:06:32.850-05:002012-08-04T08:06:32.850-05:00thanks JH, I'm hanging in there and sometimes ...thanks JH, I'm hanging in there and sometimes need to take a break from the blogosphere (not sure if we are getting anywhere in these kinds of formats), I think I understand your position but am not so sure that "habits (neurology, whatever)" and reflective control,desire, and agency are really separable but either way the continental plasticity folks are not just talking about neurology and such and may be closer to your lines of inquiry than not.<br />sadly I'm afraid I'm an unrepentant man of my times; correlationalist, individualist, naturalist, nominalist, etc, but I guess we should expect that we get stuck in our grooves, eh? best, dmfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-84109860720461588132012-08-03T14:44:35.345-05:002012-08-03T14:44:35.345-05:00DMF,
Yes, that is the kind of thing I am targetti...DMF,<br /><br />Yes, that is the kind of thing I am targetting. In my dissertation, I even named a lot of names, but my committee said that it was bad politics, so I took it out. The same should hold for my book.<br /><br />My concern is that we *might* be plastic enough in our habits (neurology, whatever), but what I focus upon is the reflective control of agency and its intersection with desire. Or, in Platonic terms, the (dis)harmonies of desire and intelligence that allow one to become an intellectual brute (Thrasymachus) or a clever thug (Glaucon's argument in the Republic). We might be able to change our ways, but if we haven't the agency to realize these changes, the mere possibility is of little help. This is something that pragmatists rarely confront, and for them its a theoretical issue far more problematic than it is even for others, in part because they dance on the grave of the naturalistic fallacy. I can explain if you don't get my thrust there.<br /><br />It is good to hear from you. I was worried that something had happened to you since you've been so quiet. Of course, I have been as well, but you've been gone a long time.khadimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12960757465883819380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1247368540862329841.post-39171166981568426922012-08-03T14:11:05.880-05:002012-08-03T14:11:05.880-05:00very good, one sees much of this in the growing eu...very good, one sees much of this in the growing euphoria over "plasticity", might be interesting down the road to see how Malabou and co. might fit in with your critique.<br />-dmfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com