The Realist, the Pragmatist, and the Realist

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Rordy: The realist is on this quest to present or discover reality as as it really is. And the pragmatist says there's no way we could access that kind of truth, you know. We can't step outside of our own perspective,. It's just like, not epitemically possible. But what rordy wants to maintain is so we lose the pretension that we can, from some transcendental perspective, describe the world as it actually is.

David and Tamler take their first real look at pragmatism via Richard Rorty’s “Solidarity or Objectivity.” Can we discover facts about the world as it “really is,” independent of our own culturally influenced methods of inquiry? If not, does that make us relativists? Is David right about pragamatism being an ass-backward approach to scientific truth, or is he just a pragmatist who’s not ready to admit that to himself? Plus, does "The Little Mermaid" have to be white? What about Clark Kent? And we select the topic finalists for our Patreon listener selected episode.