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Single Idea 19090

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy ]

Full Idea

If we cannot check our language against non-linguistic awareness, then philosophy can never be more than a discussion of the utility and compatibility of beliefs - and, more particularly, of the various vocabularies in which those beliefs are formulated.

Gist of Idea

If we can't check our language against experience, philosophy is just comparing beliefs and words

Source

Richard Rorty (Brandom on Social Practices and Representations [1998], iii.127), quoted by Danielle Macbeth - Pragmatism and Objective Truth p.178

Book Ref

'New Pragmatists', ed/tr. Misak,Cheryl [OUP 2009], p.178

A Reaction

I'm amazed at how many people I encounter in philosophy circles (compared with none at all outside those circles) who seem to think that we cannot check our language against our non-linguistic awareness. Rorty is their guru. Weird.

The 48 ideas with the same theme [view of the whole enterprise as hopeless]:

6321 Vulgar people are alert; I alone am muddled [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
5863 Reason is eternal, but men are foolish [Heraclitus]
9283 Our ancient beliefs can never be overthrown by subtle arguments [Euripides]
125 Is a gifted philosopher unmanly if he avoids the strife of the communal world? [Plato]
2056 Philosophers are always switching direction to something more interesting [Plato]
112 Most people are readier to submit to compulsion than to argument [Aristotle]
7281 Don't even start, let's just stay put [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
8138 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy [Paul]
23766 Don't be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, by cunning deceptive men [Paul]
6814 Instead of prayer and charity, sinners pursue vain disputes and want their own personal scripture [Mohammed]
8658 For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently [Shakespeare]
6602 Philosophy is like a statue which is worshipped but never advances [Bacon]
24032 Clever scholars can obscure things which are obvious even to peasants [Descartes]
3601 Most things in human life seem vain and useless [Descartes]
3602 Almost every daft idea has been expressed by some philosopher [Descartes]
2196 The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy [Hume]
5635 In ordinary life the highest philosophy is no better than common understanding [Kant]
22087 Philosophy fails to articulate the continual becoming of existence [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
20256 What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche]
14854 Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche]
7167 Words such as 'I' and 'do' and 'done to' are placed at the point where our ignorance begins [Nietzsche]
7196 Pessimism is laughable, because the world cannot be evaluated [Nietzsche]
7137 Is a 'philosopher' now impossible, because knowledge is too vast for an overview? [Nietzsche]
14876 Philosophy is always secondary, because it cannot support a popular culture [Nietzsche]
14878 It would better if there was no thought [Nietzsche]
14881 Why do people want philosophers? [Nietzsche]
20107 How many mediocre thinkers are occupied with influential problems! [Nietzsche]
21572 Philosophical disputes are mostly hopeless, because philosophers don't understand each other [Russell]
18710 Philosophers express puzzlement, but don't clearly state the puzzle [Wittgenstein]
4148 What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle [Wittgenstein]
9810 The 'Tractatus' is a masterpiece of anti-philosophy [Badiou on Wittgenstein]
23459 This work solves all the main problems, but that has little value [Wittgenstein]
23512 Once you understand my book you will see that it is nonsensical [Wittgenstein]
19618 I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness [Cioran]
19621 Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran]
19607 The mind is superficial, only concerned with the arrangement of events, not their significance [Cioran]
9245 To an absurd mind reason is useless, and there is nothing beyond reason [Camus]
15970 People generalise because it is easier to understand, and that is mistaken for deep philosophy [Feynman]
21893 Philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and its writing is aesthetic [Derrida]
19090 If we can't check our language against experience, philosophy is just comparing beliefs and words [Rorty]
8047 Philosophy has been marginalised by its failure in the Enlightenment to replace religion [MacIntyre]
12772 Philosophy is a value- and attitude-driven enterprise [Fraassen]
2956 There is nothing so obvious that a philosopher cannot be found to deny it [Lockwood]
9208 Philosophers with a new concept are like children with a new toy [Fine,K]
18494 Using a technical vocabulary actually prevents discussion of the presuppositions [Heil]
16227 Philosophers are good at denying the obvious [Hawley]
9271 Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray]
6575 Philosophy may never find foundations, and may undermine our lives in the process [Fogelin]