Comment by Ricardo on Purpose and Pragmatism · 2007-12-02T11:38:43.000Z · LW · GW

Interesting comments. I recently read Lovejoy's "Thirteen Pragmatisms", which made me think that a pragmatic view is, by necessity, purpose-driven. The question is, does that argument necessarily lead to a relativist view of the world or can it be in line with a realist perspective? This is a crucial issue for knowledge representation, and ontology-focused philosophers such as Barry Smith have strong opinions about it: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1839444

thoughts?