The World and How We Know It: Stumbling Towards an Understanding

Abstract

Haack’s main purpose is to spell out the key ideas — Innocent Realism, Laconicism, Critical Common-sensism, neo-classical legal Pragmatism — of the understanding of the world and our real but very imperfect knowledge of it that she has developed over the decades. She begins, however, by explaining what attitudes and predilections — especially, her distaste for false dichotomies — she brought to philosophy from the beginning, and what new ideas gradually evolved; and concludes with some wry reflections on the condition of professional philosophy today.

Keywords: Innocent Realism, Laconicism, Critical Common-Sensism, Pragmatism