Pragmatism Blues
A slow electric AI blues song about Pragmatism, generated by text prompting with no human editing of music or lyrics. Dedicated to philosophical pragmatists wherever they are.
The AI report on the song says, “In the final analysis, the song serves as a reminder that philosophy is not a “Mirror of Nature” but a “Tool for Living.” And like any good tool, or any good song, its value lies not in its eternal essence, but in how well it helps us get through the night.”… “The Pragmatism Blues concludes not with a final cadence of certainty, but with the understanding that inquiry is open-ended. Like any good tool or song, pragmatism’s value lies in how well it helps us navigate a shifting, human-scale reality”.
[Links to people named in the song are given below the lyrics.]
Lyrics
(Verse 1: The Pragmatic Stance)
I’m taking up a stance, valuing what is good.
Yeah, I’m taking up a stance, valuing what is good.
If an idea is useful, baby, then it’s understood.
(Verse 2: Dewey and Warranted Assertibility)
Old John Dewey says the Truth is just a name.
Dewey says that Truth is just an honorific name.
Get a warrant for your claim, and you win the game.
(Verse 3: Rorty and the Mirror of Nature)
Richard Rorty broke the Mirror, put it on the shelf.
Rorty broke the Mirror, put it on the shelf.
Now we talk to one another, not some inner self.
(Verse 4: Deflationism and the T-Schema)
Truth is just a logic tool, let me tell you why.
Truth is just a logic tool, let me tell you why.
〈p〉 is true if and only if 〈p〉, under the big blue sky.
(Verse 5: Putnam and the God’s Eye View)
Putnam says no God’s Eye View is gonna help us out.
Hilary says no God’s Eye View is gonna help us out.
A human face for realism is what it’s all about.
(Verse 6: Haack and the Crossword)
Haack is workin’ on a crossword in her mind.
Susan’s workin’ on that crossword in her mind.
Entries support the clues, and that’s the grid we find.
(Verse 7: Inquiry and Provisional Belief)
Life is just enquiry, searching for a way.
Life is an enquiry, searching for a way.
Keep beliefs provisional, for another day.
(Verse 8: Empirical Relativism)
Different cats got different grids, depending where they’re at.
Different cats got different grids, depending where they’re at.
We need relativism, baby, and that is that.
Excerpts from an AI-Generated Explanatory Analysis
[links added by me]
“.. this stance is characterized by a commitment to the primacy of practice. The pragmatist asks not “Is this belief true in the eyes of God?” but “Does this belief help us cope with the environment? Does it lead to successful action?” This valuation of the useful is the heartbeat of the philosophy”.
“Dewey’s intervention in the history of philosophy was radical: he proposed to replace the concept of “Truth”—which had become encrusted with metaphysical baggage—with the functional concept of “Warranted Assertibility”.. . For him, the knower is an organism located within nature, interacting with it biologically and socially. Knowledge is not a mirror image; it is a tool for survival and adaptation.” … “A critical aspect of Dewey’s thought, echoed in the song, is the “provisional” nature of all belief. Because inquiry is an ongoing process and the world is constantly changing, no warrant is ever absolute. A belief is “valid” only as long as it continues to function effectively in new situations. This is “empirical relativism” applied to time—what is warranted today may be overturned by the inquiries of tomorrow.”
“Dewey viewed “Truth” merely as an “honorific” title bestowed upon assertions that have been fully warranted by the inquiry process.” ( see this reference).. “Dewey rejected the “Spectator Theory of Knowledge,” which imagined the mind as a passive mirror sitting outside nature. For Dewey, the knower is an agent located within nature, and knowledge is a tool for adaptation.”
“Richard Rorty argued that Western epistemology was based on the visual metaphor of the mind as a “mirror” reflecting nature. He advocated for “anti-representationalism,” [Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature]
“Deflationism posits that the concept of truth is exhausted by the equivalence schema: 〈p〉 is true if and only if p. The predicate “is true” is merely a logical device for generalization”
Hilary Putnam championed “Internal Realism,” insisting that we cannot step outside our conceptual schemes for a “God’s Eye View” . He argued for a “human face” of realism that respects our responsibility to reality within our scheme …..
Susan Haack “used the Crossword Puzzle as a metaphor: experiential evidence acts as “clues,” and our beliefs act as “entries” . An entry is justified by its fit with the clue and its intersection with other entries”
“Empirical (or Descriptive) Relativism is the observation that different groups hold different central beliefs . The pragmatist admits that beliefs are warranted within specific contexts or “grids” ..”