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Article 1411 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: ewolfe@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (eric andrew wolfe)
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Subject: Nihilism (was Re: Daniel Dennett (was Re: Commenting on . . .)
Message-ID: <1991Nov19.191818.14735@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 19 Nov 91 19:18:18 GMT
References: <1991Nov15.160741.5495@husc3.harvard.edu> <14920@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1991Nov19.101612.5603@husc3.harvard.edu>
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In article <1991Nov19.101612.5603@husc3.harvard.edu>
zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes: 
[all sorts of business deleted]

MZ:
>This, of course, assumes that Rorty still has some credibility in the
>English-speaking world.  Can a nihilist tell the difference between a
>charlatan and an ignoramus?  

>From Webster's New Collegiate (I didn't feel like dragging out the
OED):
nihilism   1. a: a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are
unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless  b: a doctrine
that denies any objective ground of truth and esp. of moral truths.

While Rorty is (b), he is not (a); the problem with trotting out
"nihilist" when discussing thinkers like Rorty is that most people
seem to retain all the connotations (if not the denotation) of def.
(a), picturing a mopey, suicidal, black-garbed philosopher.

A nihilist (b) could indeed tell the difference between a charlatan
and an ignoramus, because these are socially-constructed categories.
A nihilist (a) probably wouldn't care.


Eric Wolfe


