Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

CHAPTER 38: LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

1. Jean-François Lyotard, The Post-Modem Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.

2. See his: ‘The Psychoanalytic Approach to Artistic and Literary Expression,’ in Toward The Post-Modem, New York: Humanities Press, 1993, pages 2–11; Part 1 of this book is headed ‘Libidinal’, Part 2 ‘Pagan’, and Part 3 ‘Intractable.’

3. Lyotard, The Post-Modern Condition, Op. cit., page xxiv.

4. Ibid., pages 42–46.

5. Ibid., page 60.

6. Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980.

7. Ibid., pages 34–38.

8. Ibid., page 363.

9. Ibid., page 367.

10. Ibid., pages 367–368.

11. Ibid., pages 389–391.

12. Richard Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

13. Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth, Op. cit., pages 56–57.

14. Ibid., page 37.

15. Ibid., page 39.

16. Ibid., page 40.

17. Ibid., pages 203ff.

18. Ibid., page 218.

19. Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979; and The View From Nowhere, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, paperback, 1989.

20. Nagel, Mortal Questions, Op. cit., page x.

21. Nagel, The View From Nowhere, Op. cit., page 26.

22. Ibid., page 52.

23. Ibid., pages 78–79.

24. Ibid., page 84.

25. Ibid., page 85.

26. Ibid., page 108.

27. Ibid., page 107.

28. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books, 1973.

29. Ibid., page 36.

30. Ibid., pages 3ff.

31. Ibid., page 412.

32. Ibid., page 435.

33. Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge, New York: Basic Books, 1983, paperback edition 1997, page 8.

34. Ibid., page 74.

35. Ibid., page 151.

36. Ibid., page 161.

37. Geertz’s work continues in two lecture series published as books. See: Works and Lives, London: Polity, 1988; and After the Fact, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995.

38. Bryan Magee, Men of Ideas, Op. cit., pages 196–197.

39. Consider some of the topics tackled in his various books: ‘Two concepts of rationality’ and ‘The impact of science on modern concepts of rationality,’ in Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. ‘What is mathematical truth?’ and ‘The logic of quantum mechanics,’ in Mathematics, Matter and Method, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980; and ‘Why there isn’t a ready-made world’ and ‘Why reason can’t be naturalised,’ in Realism and Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Magee, Op. cit., pages 202 and 205.

40. Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, Op. cit., page 215. Magee, Op. cit., page 201.

41. Magee, Op. cit., pages 143–145.

42. For a more accessible form of Van Quine’s ideas, see: Quiddities: An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987, where certain aspects of everyday life are ingeniously represented mathematically. But see also: ‘Success and Limits of Mathamaticalism’, in Theories and Things, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981, pages 148ff. See also: Magee, Op. cit., page 147.

43. For Van Quine’s place vis à vis analytical philosophy, see: George D. Romanos, Quine and Analytic Philosophy, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1983, pages 179ff. Magee, Op. cit., page 149.

44. Alasdair Maclntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, London: Duckworth, 1988.

45. Ibid., page 140.

46. Ibid., page 301.

47. Ibid., page 302.

48. Ibid., page 304.

49. Ibid., page 339.

50. Ibid., page 500.

51. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980, paperback 1990.

52. Ibid., pages 8–9.

53. Ibid., page 3.

54. Ibid., page 135.

55. Ibid., page 137.

56. Ibid., page 136.

57. Ibid., page 140.

58. Ibid., page 147.

59. Ibid., page 156.

60. Ibid., page 351.

61. Ibid., page 350.

62. Ibid., page 328.