ACS 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Walker Percy, Logical Consequence, Pragmatism

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9/22/2016 2:10:00 PM
Cheryl Misak (2008) “Pragmatism on Solidarity, Bullshit, and other
Deformities of Truth”
“a true belief is such that the logical consequence would fit harmoniously
with our otherwise grounded knowledge, were we to pursue our
investigations as far as they could fruitfully go”
True (i.e Authentic!) Belief: tend to have binary assumptions
true/ false version of truth is difficult to move beyond
Truth is constantly being revealed esp. If you have the courage to
put do death your beliefs to figure out and fit where you are
o More qualitative and related to understanding
o “to thy own self be true”
interested in finding honest human inquiry
approaches to truth?
o Convenience when you hear people say “I would like to
believe that xyz”
o Smoothness in terms of social smoothness; believing simply
to smooth over relations do not want to ruffle feathers
o Satisfaction not caring if what you believe smooth’s things
out; or is inconvenient simply satisfied by what you believe
in. esp. . the case for extremely privileged individuals
All are inauthentic deformed approach’s to truth
Do not ultimately lead to truth, but lead to lying,
lead to bullshit
o Formalism partly yes but empty on its own
o
o Pragmatism –isn’t simply what works (like james) but honest
human inquiry : we embrace our fabilism that we are full of
errors, that we are going to make a lot of mistakes in figuring
out what is going on. As long as we embrace that we can
make real progress and relate that to real people
Ideas?
Despair…
Deep dissatisfaction
…the specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being
despair Kierkegaard
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“this morning, for the first time in years, there occurred to me the possibly
of a search…. “what is the nature of the search?” the search is what anyone
would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life… to
become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to
be onto something is to be in despair
Walker Percy (the moviegoer)
“onto something” : a general mode of life ; “really?!” has to start
with doubt- doubt the approach whether it be movies, poetry or
politics, or social justice issue there is more to the story
doubt (Misak and Peirce) introduced by some unwelcomed clash or
contrast
o uneasiness, catastrophe, suffering <- through which you can
no longer despair
the search: Sherlock Holmes : desire to learn never stop +
discontent with current habits of thinking
o pursue it further with pattern solving
puzzling, gathering clues, soaking (self control that
schedules in giving up) [reverie (all sorts of clues
cooking, and he would take the whole evening off and
go to the symphony complete flow state during this
new state he would get a new idea - ], guessing
the sign of three
master mind
always have to be willing to the possibility of one
possible explanation that accounts for some of the facts
we have a convenient likeable solution we chose to
ignore anything that contradicts this
being “on” to something
o propelled by the chase, the sinking sense that your could be
wrong
o real life examples: bell hooks: art + activism
o Emily Dickinson, mary carr,
Marshall mcluhan (1911-1980)
Insight Foresight
Change: in order to understand contemporary had to go back and
understand broad historical patterns
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Document Summary

Cheryl misak (2008) pragmatism on solidarity, bullshit, and other. A true belief is such that the logical consequence would fit harmoniously with our otherwise grounded knowledge, were we to pursue our investigations as far as they could fruitfully go : true (i. e authentic!) Belief: tend to have binary assumptions true/ false version of truth is difficult to move beyond: truth is constantly being revealed esp. As long as we embrace that we can make real progress and relate that to real people. The specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair kierkegaard. This morning, for the first time in years, there occurred to me the possibly of a search . Two minnows and the catfish, like a fish to water not aware about something you are completely dependent on has become ground or medium .

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