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RUSSELL_ALL_TRUED_UP

                                             August 03, 2021

Russell is a true believer in True Belief,
indulges in some fussy pedantic attacks
on the pragmatism of John Dewey and
C.S. Pierce--

I get the feeling though that Russell
kind of knew he was over-playing it, but
couldn't help himself.

He mentions in passing that everyone has a     
"metaphysic", and that there may be no way      THE_INEVITABLE_META
in getting around that, but clearly this is
Russell's: he believes that there's an
Absolute Truth out there, and is in some
respects deeply offended by the attempts of
the pragmatists in doing without it.           Or at least he *used* to
                                               be deeply offended:

                                                          PYTHAGOREAN_RETREAT

He seems insulted at the reduction of Truth to
a mere sociological phenomena, but that really
and truly is how things are-- we engage in
investigations as groups of human beings, the
best we can do is a collective understanding                  
that evolves through social processes...

   Granted pragmatism can often seem empty:
   "What is truth?"/"whatever works, baby"
   But what "works", how do you know it works,
   and will it work next time, too?
                                                                                                            
In comparison, the absolutists offer us an ideal            
they typically conceed is unknowable and achievable         PEIRCE_REALITY
only in the abstract, it's held up to us a goal we
might approach but only with some difficulty-- is
this that much different from Pierce's analogy to a
mathmematical series that eventually converge in the
limit?

            (Pierce in his allusion to an admitted
            "inaccuracy"-- or "imprecision" as
            part of his standard of truth was no
            doubt thinking about the error bars of
            scientific measurements.)


In Russell's fussiness, there are some good points,
however badly made-- we don't know our collective
understanding will converge on one answer--
it could be, for example, that our understanding
will oscilliate, constantly veering between two
extreme positions without ever finding anything
like a Hegelian synthesis.

And it's true that some truths are effectively
lost with time-- the Etruscans no doubt knew        I think some would
more of their daily lives than we ever will.        rewrite a line like
                                                    "it's true that some
I think you'd have to say the pragmatists           truths" to avoid using
are thinking of a subset of knowledge when          the word "true" when
they talk about their standards of truth.           talking about whether
                                                    Truth exists.
Whether I'm wearing a green tie or a purple
one, or none at all, is clearly not an issue        I'll let it stand,
on their minds-- and I still think Russell's        myself--
arguments would've been stronger if he'd just
shut up about his breakfest.                            RECURSIVE_DEFINITION

    RUSSELLS_BREAKFEST


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