Methodology

reconstructive dialectics

Lester Embree

pp. 30-43

in: James Swindal, Action and existence, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

A proper philosophical analysis provides a complete and consistent systematization of concepts for the description and explanation of things (objects) and their modifications over time. The concepts can be logical, epistemological, metaphysical, ontological, ethical, or even political; the things can be persons, collectivities, physical objects, mental objects, or even transcendent objects.¹ My suggestion will be that the resolution of some of the quandaries about action theory can be addressed by a dialectical analysis how action concepts relate to means and ends. A reconstructive dialectics explicates the concepts involved in the actions. Such an approach can resolve some of the epistemic and normative inconsistencies manifest in some of the problems raised in the last chapter about neo-pragmatic action theory.