From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 08 1999 - 13:14:33 MDT
On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, Brian Manning Delaney wrote:
> I think this is the main open question, yes. I have not seen an argument that
> validity (or truth) should be understood as utility that isn't circular. This is
> the problem with pragmatism (especially the American variety). -->
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> -How do you know utility is what should count as validity (or truth)?
> "It works."
>
> -How do you know "It works" is a valid criterion?
> "It works."
> ---------------------------------------------------
Speaking as an American pragmatist, ;), I feel that I have to step forward
and defend the theory. I think you're either misunderstanding a given
pragmatist's argument or else you're approaching it from a very funny
angle.
Asking "what is valid/true" doesn't ask the really important question, the
pragmatist argues; instead of asking "what is true," we should ask "what
should we believe?" Of course, one simple answer to that might be "all
and only true things," which leads us to try to figure out what things may
or may not be true.
However, this answer may not be the best answer we can give; if you happen
to be a utilitarian/pragmatist, your answer will be "you should believe x
iff believing in x will maximize utility." As many pragmatists and many
critics of pragmatism are fond of pointing out, despite the fact that the
utilitarian answer and the simple answer will probably overlap a great
deal, they probably don't overlap 100%.
It seems to me that you've interpreted pragmatism to be a theory of
necessary and sufficient conditions for something to be valid/true, which,
I'd argue, no sane pragmatist would actually claim to do. Indeed, any
theory of truth which establishes necessary and sufficient criteria for
something to be true is inherently circular. Pragmatism isn't a theory of
truth. It is a theory about what we should believe, which grounds itself
in the philosophy of ethics.
-Dan
-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings
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