Scott Aiken and Thomas Dabay contend that a satisfactory account of truth is both infallibilist and antiskeptical. Externalist correspondence theories, they say, preserve the infallibility of the truth-relation yet invite skeptical qualms. In tying truth to experience, pragmatist theories resist skeptical challenges, but embrace a fallibilism that renders their account of truth inconsistent and even incoherent. While agreeing with Aiken and Dabay that externalist accounts are vulnerable to skepticism, I dispute each of the four arguments they offer against pragmatist fallibilism. (...) Though partially successful against Peirce’s more popular view that truth is the final belief of a community of inquirers, their arguments are wholly ineffective against Dewey’s account of truth as warranted assertability. (shrink)

Hilary Putnam developed a distinctive way of seeing and answering every self’s existential question: What, if anything, gives life meaning? Engaging with issues of meaning over the course of his intellectual and life journey led Putnam to a deeper appreciation of the distinctive character of the practices of philosophy and religious faith as well as the long history of their dynamic interaction. By sharing an account of his own personal journey, most explicitly in Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life,1 (...) Putnam generously offered us an aid to reflection on a topic of universal personal concern.The first part of this article acknowledges the plurality of pragmatist views on religious faith. The second part... (shrink)

Verantwortung als Leistung. Moral und Verhalten scheinen beim Menschen ein generell schwieriges Verhältnis einzugehen. Ein Missverhältnis offenbart sich zumal dann, wenn man die Moral eines Individuums aus dessen Urteilen zu ergründen sucht. Anders verhält es sich mit Verantwortung. Fasst man Verantwortung als eine konkrete zwischenmenschliche Leistung auf, so zeigt sich: Verantwortung ist eine Funktion der Art und des Ausmaßes sozialer Reflexion der betroffenen Personen. Die Experimente und sozialpsychologischen Studien, die in diesem Buch vorgestellt werden, vermitteln einen Einblick in die soziale (...) Wirklichkeit von Moral - d.h. in die Wirklichkeit von Autonomie, Fiktion der Gerechtigkeit und menschlichen Situationsdefinitionen. (shrink)