Yesterday we looked Kelly's position on determinism and free will. George A. Kelly: The Psychology of Personal Constructs Part V Constructive Alternativism and Pragmatism
      In section 8 of chapter 1, "Relation to philosophical systems," Kelly says that ontologically his position is a form of substantival Monism but a neutral form, "and, like Spinoza, we are prepared to to apply attributive pluralism to the substance." Furthermore, Kelly says that "the differentiation of its (the substance's) monistic from its pluralistic aspects is hardly worth the effort." Or, as William James would have put it, "If the difference doesn't make any difference, then it has no cash value."
      William James introduced the concept of neutral monism in his essay "Does Consciousness exist?" James' argument was that consciousness does not exist as an entity, but it does exist as a function. Furthermore, abstractions like "function" and "thought" are not made up of any difference kind of "stuff" than is matter. This is what is meant by neutral monism in Kelly's Constructive Alternativism and James' Pragmatism.
       The term Monism is in contrast to Dualism. Dualist philosophers believe that reality is made up of two kind of "stuff"; material things and immaterial things. Monists, on the other hand, believe there is only one kind of stuff; but Materialist Monists believe there is only matter, and Idealist Monists believe there is only ideas. By staking out the pragmatist territory of Neutral Monism, James, Kelly, and others are saying there is both matter and ideas but that they are not different kinds of stuff. This is a breakaway from most philosophy since Descartes left us with the mind/body duality conundrum. It is also where we segue into postmodernism and process philosophy.
Tomorrow: Postmodernism and Process Philosophy.
Alert all your friends who won't give up their racial identities and/or who make money from owning private property, that this blog challenges their personal and social constructs.
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My rants on racial identity began on July 9, 2015
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