Comment on Wartofsky
pp. 375-377
in: Abner Shimony, Debra Nails (eds), Naturalistic epistemology, Berlin, Springer, 1987Abstract
At one point Wartofsky summarizes his historical epistemology by saying, "To put it in perhaps too radical a way, I would suggest that it is we who invent or create the mind, construct it, and transform it historically." His suggestion is too radical because, by his own admission elsewhere, there are "mental and perceptual structures" which the inventive and creative processes must respect. Wartofsky seems to be struggling towards a wide-ranging epistemology that judiciously acknowledges both the genetic and the acquired, and both the neural and the mental aspects of cognition (I hope without conflating these two dichotomies, but I cannot be sure from his text). Unfortunately, the pendulum swings between exaggerated claims and cautious hedging are deleterious to a clear exposition of his epistemology.