Copyright © 2014
Avello Publishing Journal
ISSN: 2049 - 498X
Issue 1 Volume 4:
The Paradox of Nietzschean Atheism
Jason Wakefield, University of Cambridge, England.
Review: Expressivism, Pragmatism & Representationalism H. Price 2014. Cambridge University
Press.
Huw Price, Simon Blackburn and I, responded to a talk delivered by Robert Brandom earlier this
evening (06/05/14) at St. John's College, University of Cambridge. This was a semi-reversal of the
commentary Blackburn and Brandom gave on three essays by Price revised for this book included
as chapters preceding a postscript reply by Price. Global expressivism was not mentioned in our
debate earlier, however pragmatic inferentialism; the epistemic contamination of semantic purity;
determinate conceptual content and the Hegelian interpretation of Kantian normativity was.
Naturalism without representationalism one would assume would be a debate between Hume and
Nietzsche, however it is not in the case of Price; where it is a debate between Carnap and Quine.
Intellectuals should ensure this book hits the mass market. It should be sold on airport bookstalls. It
is the type of book designed for globetrotting. If you recall Micheal Palin's BBC adventures
documenting the ascent of the human species in evolutionary terms, Price gives a powerful account
of his passion for the semantic ladders of the world according to pragmatic René Descartes lectures
given in 2008 at the Tilburg Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science.
The highlight of the book is the concluding postscript, where Price clarifies his perspective on
subject naturalism in response to critical essays by Simon Blackburn, Robert Brandom, Paul
Horwich and Micheal Williams. Rather than repeat the critique by John MacFarland's review
published by Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, my critique will focus sharply on my seminar
experienceswith Huw Price in person at Lady Mitchell Hall and St. John's College, Cambridge –
during 2014.
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Simon Blackburn, Huw Price, Tim Crane and I responded to Kit Fine's Moral Sciences Club
meeting at St. John's College, Cambridge speech about Truthmaker Semantics with myself very
eloquently on the 21st January 2014. My draft manuscript of my response is an article with the title
Intentionality via Truth in Fine's Semantics, thus there is no need to refer to it in detail within this
context of placement in a review. Blackburn, Crane, Price and I questioned Fine on propositional
quantifiers in modal logic; the construction of possble worlds; the elimation of de re modality;
possibilist discourse and the distinction between a true proposition that imposes a condition on
circumstances that all circumstances meet, with a true proposition that imposes no condition on
circumstances regardless. How this can responsibly be expressed in practical terms one would like
to be attempted through how it can work in the activities of Abiodun Osibodu and others who are
helping children in war torn areas of Africa such as the Congo, where decades of conflict have left
millions in desperate poverty. Timothy Williamson is a vocal critic of modal logic, where the
truthmaker principle claims that every single truth is made true by some solitary thing. These tropes
are often called, generically a truthmaker. Many of these logical enigmas are discussed by Paul
Horwich and Micheal Williams in relation to accepting subject naturalism to reject object
naturalism in the conclusion to this book. One would like to see how these theories translate in to
the tangible world, as over 14, 000 children live and work on the streets of the Congo – thus they
need help. 'This is naturalism in the sense of Hume, then, arguably Nietzsche' (Price 2013: 5). Truth
and naturalism is clarified by Price in the form of global anti-representationalism which Price terms
global expressivism. My contribution to this is that for something to be global in an abstract sense,
we must make it global in a pragmatic sense – for example by helping stop war, hunger and disease
in Congo. Feeding and educating children can help us build and rebuild the future. The postscript is
the highlight of this collection of papers, in addition to the very high quality of Blackburn's trim
analysis of truth via quai-realism chapter. The postscript is an excellent responseto critical debates
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in naturalism started by Wilfred Sellars and other leaders in neo-pragmatism. This book will be an
excellent purchase for anyone teaching metaphysics, as critiqued by Robert Stalnaker, Ruth Barcan
Marcus and Peter Greenough. Segregation-era neglect of small countries in Africa is no longer the
case by analytic philosophers, thinkers such as Rae Langton are speaking about the interactions
between practical and epistemic authority in apartheid law, where we can now get at least a few
provisional conclusions.
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