Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 07:07:53 -0500 (EST) From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> Subject: Re: foundationalism "Foundationalism" has a technical sense in analytic epistemology, and a broader, looser sense (in fact a hopelessly equivocal one) in the post-moderbist discussion. I suspect that it got into the latter from the former via Rorty, a formerly analytical philosopher turned postmodernist, but who uses the term in the old technical sense. In that sense, foundationalism is the doctrine that any warranted belief is either based, by some profess of justified inference, on beliefs which are not based on any other beliefs, or is such "baseless" belief which is itself independently warranted in view of something intrinsic to it. Thus in the classic empiricist picture, theoretical beliefs are warranted because they can be derived in some sense from, or justified by, observational beliefs, where these are considered warranted (though not necessarily certain) in view of being directly given. Anti-foundationbalism is the denial of this doctrine and is dominant among analytical philosophers, empiricists included, today. As used in the debate on this list, though, and by post-modernists, I suspect that "foundationalism" cobflates the above stated sense with the semantic doctrine that the truth of propositions and the referenceof their terms might have a nonlinguistic component, i.e., that they might be about something really independent of our conceptions and language and refer to real things which have natures ("essences") in themselves. Also with the metaphysical doctrine that the way things are is in fact independent of our conceptions and language; that the world comes "cut up" already. As Wolff, for example, uses "foundationalism," I am a foundationalist even though I reject the doctrine that there are antecedently and independently privileged beliefs, because I do maintain that our theories are true or false absolutely, for anyone, and that they are so in virtue of the way things really are. For Wolff, reference to the way things really are and objective truth are "foundations." Thus understood, foundationlism is what philosophers call realism, atleast on its semantic and metaphysical sides, and anti-foundationalism is what philosophers call idealism--the doctrine that the world itself depends on or is constituted by our conceptions or language. So understood, I am of course a foundationalist. I think this is a misuse of the term because it suggests confusion with the epistemological doctrine, which I reject. --Justin Schwartz On Mon, 23 Jan 1995, Louis N Proyect wrote: > Please excuse my ignorance, but "foundationalism" seems a little obscure > to me. > > Unless it's the same term that I heard discussed this weekend at a > conference held at the Marxist school in NYC, in which case I'm all for it. > > David Harvey, author of "The Postmodern Condition", gave a keynote > address and basically gave a traditional Marxist analysis of the current > political situation. The chairperson was one Joel Krieger, a professor at > Wellesley College, who used to be associated with Socialist Review. > > Krieger took Harvey to task. His basic complaint was that Harvey saw > things through the prism of class and that this was insufficient for > understanding the current political situation. For example, according to > Krieger, the war in Bosnia eludes the category of class. > > Mixed in with Krieger's critique of Harvey was a lot of dismissal of what > he called "foundationalism". I take this to mean a set of core beliefs > that have traditionally been associated with Marxism, such as the belief > that the class-struggle is the locomotive of history, etc., etc. > > Is this the same kind of "foundationalism" that contributors to this list > have been hollering at? > > By the way, Harvey stated that old-time, class-oriented Marxists like > himself are rather a rarity in the academic world. I presume from the > contributions to this list that he is correct. > > > Louis Proyect, Database Support Group, Columbia University ------------------
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