If I may summarize what I think the key disagreement is, you think we can know truth well enough to avoid the problem of the criterion and gain nothing from addressing it.
That’s not my only disagreement. I also think that your specific proposed solution does nothing to “address” the problem (in particular because it just seems like a bad idea, in general because “addressing” it to your satisfaction is impossible), and only serves as an excuse to rationalize holding comforting but wrong beliefs under the guise of doing “advanced philosophy”. This is why the “powerful but dangerous tool” rhetoric is wrongheaded. It’s not a powerful tool. It doesn’t grant any ability to step outside your own head that you didn’t have before. It’s just a trap.
It’s true that I think the problem of the criterion cannot be resolved, and this forces us to adopt particularism (this is different from pragmatism but compatible with it, see Chisholm’s work in this area for more information). I’m not sure what “comforting but wrong beliefs” you think I’m holding on to, though, and to be pointed about it I think believing you can identify the criterion of truth is a “comforting” belief that is either contradictory or demands adopting non-transcendental idealism (a position I think is insufficiently parsimonious to be worth taking).
As for it being “a trap” and granting you no more “ability to step outside your own head that you didn’t have before”, I’d say this is entirely true of any ontology you construct. That doesn’t mean we don’t try, but it is the case that we are always stuck in our heads so long as we are trying to understand anything because that’s the nature of what it is to understand. You’ll likely disagree with me on this point because we disagree on the problem of the criterion, but I’d say the only way to get outside your own head is by turning to the pre-ontological or the ontic through techniques like meditation and epoche.
So alas it sounds as though we are at an impasse as I don’t really have the interest or the energy to try to convince you to my side of the question of how to address epistemic circularity given my current understanding of your reasoning. That’s not to dismiss you, only that it’s beyond what I’m currently up to engaging in. Perhaps another will step into this thread and take up the challenge.
If I may summarize what I think the key disagreement is, you think we can know truth well enough to avoid the problem of the criterion and gain nothing from addressing it.
and to be pointed about it I think believing you can identify the criterion of truth is a “comforting” belief that is either contradictory or demands adopting non-transcendental idealism
Actually… I was going to edit my comment to add that I’m not sure that I would agree that I “think we can know truth well enough to avoid the problem of the criterion” either, since your conception of this notion seems to intrinsically require some kind of magic, leading me to believe that you somehow mean something different by this than I would. But I didn’t get around to it in time! No matter.
That’s not my only disagreement. I also think that your specific proposed solution does nothing to “address” the problem (in particular because it just seems like a bad idea, in general because “addressing” it to your satisfaction is impossible), and only serves as an excuse to rationalize holding comforting but wrong beliefs under the guise of doing “advanced philosophy”. This is why the “powerful but dangerous tool” rhetoric is wrongheaded. It’s not a powerful tool. It doesn’t grant any ability to step outside your own head that you didn’t have before. It’s just a trap.
It’s true that I think the problem of the criterion cannot be resolved, and this forces us to adopt particularism (this is different from pragmatism but compatible with it, see Chisholm’s work in this area for more information). I’m not sure what “comforting but wrong beliefs” you think I’m holding on to, though, and to be pointed about it I think believing you can identify the criterion of truth is a “comforting” belief that is either contradictory or demands adopting non-transcendental idealism (a position I think is insufficiently parsimonious to be worth taking).
As for it being “a trap” and granting you no more “ability to step outside your own head that you didn’t have before”, I’d say this is entirely true of any ontology you construct. That doesn’t mean we don’t try, but it is the case that we are always stuck in our heads so long as we are trying to understand anything because that’s the nature of what it is to understand. You’ll likely disagree with me on this point because we disagree on the problem of the criterion, but I’d say the only way to get outside your own head is by turning to the pre-ontological or the ontic through techniques like meditation and epoche.
So alas it sounds as though we are at an impasse as I don’t really have the interest or the energy to try to convince you to my side of the question of how to address epistemic circularity given my current understanding of your reasoning. That’s not to dismiss you, only that it’s beyond what I’m currently up to engaging in. Perhaps another will step into this thread and take up the challenge.
Actually… I was going to edit my comment to add that I’m not sure that I would agree that I “think we can know truth well enough to avoid the problem of the criterion” either, since your conception of this notion seems to intrinsically require some kind of magic, leading me to believe that you somehow mean something different by this than I would. But I didn’t get around to it in time! No matter.