<p>Local pragmatists direct their explanatory energies to our talk of such perennially puzzling things as numbers, possibilities, or normative properties. Neopragmatists like Huw Price and Amie Thomasson, on the other hand, have a global view; they hold that all our talk should be explained in pragmatic, non-representational ways. Such global views have been accused of having a “No Exit” problem. Those who press this objection note that pragmatist explanations require a metavocabulary, which must itself be explained. And if that metavocabulary is given a second pragmatist explanation, then the same issue arises. This regress of explanations seems to be unstoppable unless there is an ultimate “exit” into a metavocabulary that can be understood in representational terms. If all of this is right, it can seem that global pragmatism is impossible. Some prominent neopragmatists, including Price and Thomasson, have attempted to respond to the challenge. But they seem to share their critics’ assumption that No Exit is a phenomenon peculiar to neopragmatism. As a result, they have responded in distinctively neopragmatist ways. The present paper argues that this is a mistake. The right response is to show that representationalism has a precisely analogous problem. No Exit is a phenomenon that arises for everyone, so that it can be an objection to no one.</p>

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No Exit? No problem

  • Joshua Gert

摘要

Local pragmatists direct their explanatory energies to our talk of such perennially puzzling things as numbers, possibilities, or normative properties. Neopragmatists like Huw Price and Amie Thomasson, on the other hand, have a global view; they hold that all our talk should be explained in pragmatic, non-representational ways. Such global views have been accused of having a “No Exit” problem. Those who press this objection note that pragmatist explanations require a metavocabulary, which must itself be explained. And if that metavocabulary is given a second pragmatist explanation, then the same issue arises. This regress of explanations seems to be unstoppable unless there is an ultimate “exit” into a metavocabulary that can be understood in representational terms. If all of this is right, it can seem that global pragmatism is impossible. Some prominent neopragmatists, including Price and Thomasson, have attempted to respond to the challenge. But they seem to share their critics’ assumption that No Exit is a phenomenon peculiar to neopragmatism. As a result, they have responded in distinctively neopragmatist ways. The present paper argues that this is a mistake. The right response is to show that representationalism has a precisely analogous problem. No Exit is a phenomenon that arises for everyone, so that it can be an objection to no one.