A Few Personal Notes on Rorty


5-Literature
4-Religion
3-Philosophy (Moral Entrepreneurs)
2-Intellectual History
1-History
0-Law
1-Science
—Curt

Tautology(necessary),
Proof(possible),
Rational(potential),
Literature(meaningful) —Curt

We are all relying upon narratives that provide decidability for the purpose of pursuing allies in the achievement of a condition, not truth. We only rely upon a truthful narrative when it assists us attracting allies in the achievement of a condition. –Curt

Shinto when we’re born,
Confucian when we’re adolescent,
Christian when we’re married,
Buddhist when we die. — Japanese Saying

Rationality – in that one consents to be persuaded – is a social virtue not a human faculty. Reason is a human faculty. Rationality is a moral virtue – a property of cooperation. — Rorty restated by Doolittle

“It’s not a surprise that religion, democracy, and science, are in conflict: power.”–Rorty

“Another sense of philosophy describes how various ideas fit together.” — Rorty. Well, I would say that philosophy consists of logic (necessity), criticism (science), integration(rationality), advocacy(moral literature), and imagining (fantasy literature). And that religion conflates advocacy, imagining, and Law (force). –Curt

“if we take care of education and democratic freedom then truth will take care of itself”–Dewey. Well, it turns out that Dewey/Rorty are wrong. Just the opposite. – Curt

Judaism is, like American pragmatism, a feminine philosophy, in that consequences to the commons are irrelevant. All that matters is the consequences to those collectively extant in the moment. — Curt

Rorty makes the progressive error of the steady-state. We always fight the red queen. We have lost that under the temporary prosperity of industrialism. But the red queen has shifted just as crime has shifted. We compete against economies and resources and institutions, not against farming and territory and demographics. — Curt

What objectively right vs objectively better = Survival of your gene pool. It is objectively right, and objectively better. — Curt


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