Holism and Hermeneutics (1980)

Abstract

This chapter argues first that there is an essential difference between theoretical and practical holism and thus there is an essential difference between the natural and human sciences. If one holds that there is no crucial difference between things and people one must embrace some form of nihilism—a way of life in which all values have the same value, everything is equal, or, to put it another way, there are no meaningful differences. However, if there is a crucial difference between self-interpreting human beings and other sorts of entities, one can counter the nihilistic possibility of what Rorty calls “conversations” between those who have opposed “preferences” with the possibility of genuine conflicts of interpretation as to the serious issues worth conversing about.

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