Gary R (and list),
The question you pose at the end of your post is a big one, and my answer is
embedded in Chapter 16 of Turning Signs, http://www.gnusystems.ca/TS/prx.htm .
Of course there’s always room for improvement (or at least refinement) in
anyone’s answer to such a question, so I look forward to reading the answers
put forward by others. I should mention, though, that I’m not so concerned with
the emergence from the current pandemic as I am with how we can live through
the larger and intertwined crises of energy, ecology, economy and social
equity. That’s what I’m blogging about (on those rare days when I seem to have
something original to say).
Gary f.
} The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the
easiest person to fool. [Richard P. Feynman] {
<http://gnusystems.ca/wp/> http://gnusystems.ca/wp/ }{ living the transition
From: Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com>
Sent: 13-Jun-20 16:04
To: Peirce-L <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>
Subject: [PEIRCE-L] The Pragmatic Trivium
List,
In a recent op-ed piece titled "The End of College as We Knew It"
(https://tinyurl.com/ybha8mhb), Frank Bruni reflects on something I've been
informally discussing with friends and colleagues now for years; namely, that
"A society without a grounding in ethics, self-reflection, empathy and beauty
is one that has lost its way” (Brian Rosenberg, recently president of
Macalester College). It seems to me that this has happened in the United States.
It has long seemed to me that America today has largely abandoned what might be
called the normative trivium of aesthetics, ethics, and logic -- Peirce's three
Normative Sciences, not the classical trivium (for which see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Miriam_Joseph> Sister Miriam Joseph's
2002 book, The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric) that
he generalized to serve as the three branches of Logic as Semeiotic.
This philosophical trivium points to the possible application of Peirce's three
Normative Sciences -- not their theoretical forms, but rather their ordinary
and potentially pragmatic guises as they appear in life practice, including
reflection and action upon what is beautiful in art and nature, what is ethical
in our behavior in the world, and how we can apply 'critical commonsenseism' in
our quotidian lives. Bruni writes: "We need writers, philosophers, historians.
They’ll be the ones to chart the social, cultural and political challenges of
this pandemic -- and of all the other dynamics that have pushed the United
States so harrowingly close to the edge. In terms of restoring faith in the
American project and reseeding common ground, they’re beyond essential."
Bruni's op-ed reflection came in part in response to a recent article by
Rosenberg in The Chronicle of Higher Education; see "How Should Colleges
Prepare for a Post-Pandemic World"
(https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Should-Colleges-Prepare/248507).
Rosenberg writes: “If one were to invent a crisis uniquely and diabolically
designed to undermine the foundations of traditional colleges and universities,
it might look very much like the current global pandemic.” In a similar vein,
Professor Andrew Belbanco, president of the Teagle Foundation which gives as
its purpose promoting the liberal arts, writes: “This is not only a public
health crisis and an economic crisis, though Lord knows it’s both of those.
It’s also a values crisis. It raises all kinds of deep human questions: What
are our responsibilities to other people? Does representative democracy work?
How do we get to a place where something like bipartisanship could emerge
again?”
Commenting on the economic divide of the American university, Bruni notes that
"the already pronounced divide between richly endowed, largely residential
schools and more socioeconomically diverse ones that depend on public funding
grows wider as state and local governments face unprecedented financial
distress. A shrinking minority of students get a boutique college experience.
Then there’s everybody else." Gail Mellow, former president of LaGuardia
College of the City University of New York (where I taught for decades before
my retirement) is quoted as saying, “We always knew that America was moving
more and more toward very different groups of people," to which Bruni adds,
"that movement is only accelerating."
Confronting all this will undoubtedly be one of the great challenges that
America -- and for that matter, the world -- will have in the years and decades
to come. The question I pose is: Can Peirce's version of pragmatism (or
pragmaticism) -- which he also calls 'critical commonsenseism' -- creatively
contribute to these enormous challenges? And, if so, how? And are there ways in
which Peirce's philosophical trivium might help inform the aesthetics, ethics,
and critical thinking of the world as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic?
If so, how?
[Note: I have Bcc'd this post to several former members of this forum, a few
members who rarely if ever post but who have stayed in contact with me offlist,
and a few friends and colleagues who have not been members but who may have an
interest in this topic. Those who are not current members of the forum may send
your thoughts on the topic off-list to me letting me know if I have your
permission to post them.]
Best,
Gary
"Time is not a renewable resource." gnox
Gary Richmond
Philosophy and Critical Thinking
Communication Studies
LaGuardia College of the City University of New York
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