> So try. Reflective equilibrium theory actually is interesting to me.
Sure. But nothing I might say about it would be.
> This is
> what is left of epistemology, so far as a prag sees it. Dick Brandt, who
> taught my Theory of Knowledge class at Michigan in 1979, when you were
being > born or before (Jesus Christ!), used to ask me, when I'd say things
like
> that, So what's the news from Princeton, Mr. Schwartz? I had just escaped
> from under Rorty & Harmen's tutelage, and its showed. Still does, I guess.
I found Harman's Ethics and Observation to be a challenging work.
> I'll remind you at the risk of sounding snooty that I AM A PROFESSIONAL
(or
> was one) [DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!], and am actually qualified to make
> this judgment, which doesn't mean I'm right. But I actually used to be
paid real
> money (not much, but market rates) to make these kinds of evaluations of
> students' work and as a reviewer for publishers and journals. You can
listen
> to your friend rather than me. Maybe he knows more than I do. But let it
go,
> if you don't find Posner's philosophical stuff worth reading, no one is
> holdinga gun to your head, read something else.
Never said or intimated anything of the sort. This whole "debate" originated when I took issue with your assertion that Posner's a very good AP.
> >??? Philosophical and political questions are incredibly complicated,
and
> >I'm sure most of my answers are far from satisfactory. What of it? Do
you
> >think you're almost always right?
>
> It's almost an analytical truth, if there was any such thing, that if I
> believe something I think it is right.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was actually getting at precisely what you said a couple of sentences later: "I know that I am not likely to be right about everything." I'd go further: the divergence of opinion displayed even (and perhaps particularly) by those of the supplest intellects leads me to believe that most of us are substantially in error much of the time.
BTW, I'm still curious as to why you'd tell someone you happen to be conversing with, "furthermore, you are almost always wrong." Is that your idea of a provocative aside?
-- Luke