metonymy4u

I could say to you that if I dropped this apple it would fall at a rate of 9.8 m/(sec*sec), and you might agree. Then I could say that because we agree on what a meter is and what a second is and what it means to fall, that therefore that’s the way things actually are. That as soon as I clear up any confusion about each term in my statement, we must, on the strength of the empirical data, agree that apples actually do fall towards the earth when dropped and that they actually accelerate at the rate of 9.8 m/(sec*sec). But a pragmatist might jump in here and object that in fact I just pulled a philosophical sleight of hand. That the statement that an apple will fall at a rate of 9.8 m/(sec*sec) and the statement that that’s the way things actually are, are two different events, not necessarily or even empirically related to one another in any clear and distinct manner. The first is a matter of pragmatics, she might observe, the second of piety. And she would, I believe, have no trouble accepting the first even as she severely desires to punish the second. Thus in this way we can equally embrace all the statements of science as well as Derrida’s desire to break with the entire tradition of Western Faith. Because one need not have anything to do with the other. The problem, as I see it, is when self-conscious poets like Derrida get hit on the head and want to steal science’s thunder. Then they change their name to Lacan. For although we have ample data to suggest that faith and poetry are events that promote healing and recovery from illness, to then turn over control of the cancer drugs to the poets and the priests would be utter madness. A fact that I suspect Derrida unfortunately appreciated towards the end of his life as he was dying of pancreatic cancer. And even though for most of my adult life I have considered him a charlatan, I have continued thinking about him and it was just there in light of these very considerations that I finally learned to adopt a new attitude towards him. Indeed, based on these considerations, one could begin to see, pace Nietzsche, all “-isms” as normative theories masquerading as descriptions.

I’m trying to figure out how to use science to help people. To put it another way, I’m trying to figure out how to allow my behaviors to be shaped by the behaviors of people who look like scientists, in order to shape the behaviors of people who look like clients.