Grilled Cheese

ExploreLog inSign up
Terms of UsePrivacy PolicyCommunity StandardsHelpGet the app

Grilled Cheese is a product of Village Compute

Version devBuilt at: 2026-10-11 02:37:10 EDT

Explore

PostsPeople
LatestRanked
@rortyquotes.bsky.socialSep 21, 2026, 2:02 PM

A culture in which the science-poetry distinction is explained by different sorts of human needs would be a great big cultural change–as big as the one that was brought about by the secularization of morality & of social institutions–but is worth a try.
Rorty & His Critics p.151
#Experimentalism

I would suggest that these issues can only be resolved, as Dewey would say, experimentally. That is, we can only resolve them by trying to create a culture in which the science-poetry distinction is not explicated in terms of the distinction between reality and fantasy, between "the world" and "us," but rather–as I suggested above–in terms of the distinction between different sorts of human needs. This would be a great big cultural change–as big as the one that was brought about by the secularization of morality and of social institutions–but is worth a try. Perhaps my conviction that this experiment would succeed is due to being an American who has read too much Emerson, Whitman, James, and Dewey–just as Bouveresse admits that his conviction that such an experiment is bound to fail may be the result of certain particular aspects of the French situation and of his personal history. But, however this may be, there is no substitute for trying the experiment and observing the result.
@rortyquotes.bsky.socialSep 20, 2026, 2:01 PM

We can only resolve some issues by trying to create a culture in which the science-poetry distinction is not explicated in terms of the distinction between reality & fantasy, but in terms of the distinction between different sorts of human needs.
Rorty & His Critics p.151
#Rorty
#Experimentalism

I would suggest that these issues can only be resolved, as Dewey would say, experimentally. That is, we can only resolve them by trying to create a culture in which the science-poetry distinction is not explicated in terms of the distinction between reality and fantasy, between "the world" and "us," but rather–as I suggested above–in terms of the distinction between different sorts of human needs. This would be a great big cultural change–as big as the one that was brought about by the secularization of morality and of social institutions–but is worth a try. Perhaps my conviction that this experiment would succeed is due to being an American who has read too much Emerson, Whitman, James, and Dewey–just as Bouveresse admits that his conviction that such an experiment is bound to fail may be the result of certain particular aspects of the French situation and of his personal history. But, however this may be, there is no substitute for trying the experiment and observing the result.
@rortyquotes.bsky.socialSep 19, 2026, 2:02 PM

One of the few things Thomas Nagel and I agree about is that argument is over-rated in philosophy and that the central issues on which he and I disagree–whether experience goes beyond language–are pretty well unarguable.
Rorty & His Critics p.151
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Experimentalism

How are Bouveresse and I to resolve these issues? By applying the powerful methods of analytic philosophy? What methods? Our disagreements about these matters can as easily be phrased in the jargon of analytic philosophy of science and philosophy of language as in any other. Restatement in a given jargon does not insure the availability of a method for resolving disagreement. (One of the few things Thomas Nagel and I agree about, for example, is that argument is over-rated in philosophy and, in particular, that the central issues on which he and I disagree - whether experience goes beyond language, and whether reality may not extend beyond the reach of any possible human language - are pretty well unarguable.)