Relativism in Contemporary American Philosophy: MacIntyre, Putnam, and Rorty

201 Pages·2006·8.76 MB·English

by  Timothy Mosteller

Relativism in
Contemporary American
Philosophy
TIMOTHY MOSTELLER
Continuum
RELATIVISM IN CONTEMPORARY
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Continuum Studies in American Philosophy
Dorothy G. Rogers, America's First Women Philosophers
Thorn Brooks and Fabian Freyerhagen (eds), The Legacy of John Rawls
James Marcum, Thomas Kuhn's Revolution
Joshua Rust, John Searle and the Construction of Social Reality
Eve Gaudet, Quine on Meaning
Douglas McDermid, The Varieties of Pragmatism
RELATIVISM IN CONTEMPORARY
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
TIMOTHY MOSTELLER
continuum
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Timothy Mosteller 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Timothy Mosteller has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 0-8264-8636-3 (hardback)
Typeset by BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
MPG Books Ltd., Bodmin, Cornwall
Dedication
To Angela with Love
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the patient,
dedicated guidance of Harvey Siegel. I am also very grateful to
Dallas Willard, J. P. Moreland, Doug Geivett and Susan Haack for
their significant influence in my thinking about epistemology and
the role of philosophy in well-being and well-doing.
Contents
1 Epistemological Relativism Articulated 1
Introduction 1
Relativism: general statement 2
The difficulties with ER 5
Summary 15
2 Recent Attempts to Generate A Non-problematic ER 17
Introduction 17
Meiland: "No transcendence, therefore relativism" 21
Devine: "No neutrality, therefore relativism" 26
Swoyer: "No common world, therefore relativism" 32
Stich: "No cognitive norms, therefore relativism" 35
Summary 40
3 Relativistic Tensions in MacIntyre's Epistemology 45
Introduction: three key features of MacIntyre's 45
epistemology
Rationality within traditions 47
Defeating traditions 57
Putnam and Rorty on MacIntyre's relativistic tensions 63
4 Relativistic Tensions in Putnam's Epistemology 77
Introduction 77
Rejection of relativism 78
Relativistic tensions in Putnam's epistemology 95
MacIntyre and Rorty on Putnam's relativistic tensions 109
Conclusion 114
5 Relativistic Tensions in Rorty's "Epistemology" 124
Introduction 124
viii Relativism in Contemporary American Philosophy
Rorty's views on epistemology 124
Rorty's views on epistemology and ER 135
MacIntyre and Putnam on Rorty's relativistic tensions 141
Conclusion 148
6 Toward an ER-Free Epistemology 155
Introduction 155
The standards conjunct as a necessary condition 156
for epistemology
Rejecting the no neutrality conjunct 160
Accepting local neutrality 161
Conclusion 176
Bibliography 182
Index 191
Chapter 1
Epistemoloffical Relativism Articulated
Introduction
Epistemological relativism has been with us from the beginning of
Western philosophy. It is a powerful idea that has attracted the
admiration and scorn of philosophers throughout the ages. This is
no less true in twentieth-century American philosophy. This work
is a critical study of epistemological relativism in the works of and
the debates between three contemporary American philosophers:
Alasdair MacIntyre, Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty. These
three intellectuals have contributed greatly to the discussion of the
role that relativism should or should not play in an overall account
of knowledge. In order to evaluate Maclntyre, Putnam and
Rorty's epistemologies and their views on epistemological relati-
vism, I will first argue that epistemological relativism, toward
which these epistemologies tend, fails. This first chapter begins
with a clarification of epistemological relativism and its difficulties.
This chapter will be followed in the second chapter by a critical
account of four recent attempts to overcome those difficulties. I
will argue that these attempts fail. In Chapters 3, 4 and 5 I will
present an exposition of the presence of epistemological relativism
in the major works of Maclntyre, Putnam and Rorty, and I will
examine the three-way debate between these thinkers regarding
the presence of epistemological relativism in their works. In
Chapter 6, I conclude with an account of how a coherent
epistemology can be constructed that is free from the difficulties of
epistemological relativism.