What separates the pragmatist from the idealist is the former’s whole-hearted acceptance of Darwinism.
Pragmatism is what you get when you combine a view of knowledge – knowledge as relative to context, and thus to historical contingencies – with a Darwinian story of how we got here.
For evolutionary biology lets you treat the human mind (or,let us not call it a 'mind'
for the 'mind' is no more than the human ability to organise communal projects by exchanging symbols) and no more mysterious. Further it the 'mind' is no more likely to penetrate to the ‘intrinsic’ natures of things, than the octopus’s tentacle.
The pragmatist view that knowledge is a means to action which should lead you away from questions about the nature and attainability of truth – not to mention questions about what experience is really like – to questions about how to get what you want
or how to pour new wine into old bottles.
Pragmatism is what you get when you combine a view of knowledge – knowledge as relative to context, and thus to historical contingencies – with a Darwinian story of how we got here.
For evolutionary biology lets you treat the human mind (or,let us not call it a 'mind'
for the 'mind' is no more than the human ability to organise communal projects by exchanging symbols) and no more mysterious. Further it the 'mind' is no more likely to penetrate to the ‘intrinsic’ natures of things, than the octopus’s tentacle.
The pragmatist view that knowledge is a means to action which should lead you away from questions about the nature and attainability of truth – not to mention questions about what experience is really like – to questions about how to get what you want
or how to pour new wine into old bottles.
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