Pragmatism Without Idealism

Robert Kraut, Kevin Scharp

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

We believe in the existence of an objective, mind-independent world — much of which is the way it is regardless of human interests, goals, cognitive/perceptual capacities, and research agendas. There would have been fossils, neutrinos, and curvatures in space-time even if no one had been around to theorize about them; Kepler’s laws would have accurately modeled planetary motion even if no one had realized it. To this extent we are ‘realists’. But we also believe that our concepts of objectivity, mind-independence, and cognate notions are shot through with interests, goals, and similarity standards grounded in provincial facts about ourselves. To this extent we are ‘pragmatists’. Such a package, if not examined too closely, appears incoherent: varieties of pragmatism are often claimed to undermine the very objectivity insisted upon by self-avowed realists. But this appearance is illusory.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Philosophical Methods
EditorsChris Daly
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages331-360
Number of pages30
ISBN (Electronic)9781137344557
ISBN (Print)9781349576999
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 31 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Linguistic Form
  • Ontological Claim
  • Linguistic Community
  • Linguistic Meaning
  • Planck Length

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities

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