PRAGMATIC LIBERALISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY In this book Gary Gutting offers a powerful account of the nature of human reason in modern times. The fundamental question addressed by the book is what authority human reason can still claim once it is acknowledged that our fundamental metaphysical and religious pictures of the world no longer command allegiance. If ethics and science remain sources of authority, what is the basis of that authority? Gutting develops answers to these questions through critical analysis of the work of three major philosophical voices in our time: Richard Rorty, Alas- dair Maclntyre, and Charles Taylor. His own position is defined as "pragmatic liberalism". Epistemologically, pragmatic liberalism shows that an under- standing of rationality as the social practice of reason-giving is consistent with a realism about both the commonsense and scientific worlds. Ethically, it shows that we can make sense of our ethical commitments without assert- ing the objectivity of values. In contrast to other versions of liberalism, prag- matic liberalism accepts the value of traditions without privileging one absolutely, and is also open to religion as an ineliminable possibility of our mysterious existence. This robust defense of the modern ideal of Enlightenment reason will appeal to a broad swathe of readers across the humanities and social sciences, especially in such fields as philosophy, literature, and political theory. The interpretations of Rorty, Maclntyre, and Taylor will make the book suitable as a coursebook for those teaching the history of modern philosophy. Gary Gutting is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. His previous Cambridge books are Michel FoucauWs Archaeology of Scientific Reason (1989) and The Cambridge Companion toFoucault (1994). MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY General Editor ROBERT B. PIPPIN, University of Chicago Advisory Board GARY GUTTING, University of Notre Dame ROLF-PETER HORSTMANN, Humboldt University, Berlin MARK SACKS, University of Essex This series contains a range of high-quality books on philosophers, top- ics, and schools of thought prominent in the Kantian and post-Kantian European tradition. It is nonsectarian in approach and methodology, and includes both introductory and more specialized treatments of these thinkers and topics. Authors are encouraged to interpret the boundaries of the modern European tradition in a broad way and in primarily philo- sophical rather than historical terms. Some Recent Titles: Frederick A. Olafson, What Is a Human Being? Stanley Rosen, The Mask of Enlightenment: Nietzsche's Zarathustra Robert C. Scharff, Comte after Positivism F. C. T. Moore, Bergson: Thinking Backwards Charles Larmore, The Morals of Modernity Robert B. Pippin, Idealism as Modernism Daniel W. Conway, Nietzsche's Dangerous Game John P. McCormick, Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism Frederick A. Olafson, Heidegger and the Ground of Ethics Charles Griswold, Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment Gunter Zoller, Eichte's Transcendental Philosophy Warren Breckman, Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory William Blattner, Heidegger's Temporal Idealism PRAGMATIC LIBERALISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY GARY GUTTING CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521649735 ©Gary Gutting 1999 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Gutting, Gary. Pragmatic liberalism and the critique of modernity / Gary Gutting, p. cm. - (Modern European philosophy) Includes index. ISBN 0-521-64013-X (he). - ISBN 0-521-64973-0 (pbk.) 1. Reason. 2. Rorty, Richard. 3. Maclntyre, Alasdair. 4. Taylor, Charles, 1931—. 5. Ethics, Modern - 20th century. 6. Philosophy, Modern - 20th century. I. Title. II. Series. B833.G88 1999 148-dc21 98-36501 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-64013-8 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-64973-5 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2009 Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. TO ANASTASIA 5ia CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xii Introduction: The Question of Modernity 1 I Richard Rorty: The Rudiments of Pragmatic Liberalism 7 1 The Philosophy of Representations 8 2 Knowledge without Representations 15 3 Justification as a Social Practice 19 4 The Problem of Truth 25 5 Davidsonian Therapy 32 6 Truth and Science 40 7 Ethics without Foundations 48 8 Liberal Ironism 58 II Alasdair Maclntyre: A Modern Malgre Lui 69 1 Maclntyre's Critique of the Enlightenment 70 2 Which Enlightenment? 75 3 In Defense of Enlightenment Humanism 80 4 The Lure of Tradition 86 5 The Tradition of the Virtues 92 ix X CONTENTS 6 Maclntyre and Modernity 97 7 Maclntyre versus Pragmatic Liberalism 107 III Charles Taylor: An Augustinian Modern 113 1 Taylor's Historical Project 114 2 Locke and the Radical Enlightenment 118 3 The Primacy of Everyday Life 124 4 Beyond the Enlightenment: Evil, Romanticism, and Poetic Truth 129 5 Taylor's Critique of Naturalism 136 6 Williams and Obj ectivity 141 7 Naturalism and Hypergoods 148 Pragmatic Liberalism: Concluding Reflections 163 1 Recapitulation 163 2 Metaphilosophical Coda 177 Index 195