Comments Elsewhere

Paul,

The issue here isn’t the need for “precise” meanings — as a late Wittgensteinian I think that the quest for those is itself a form of linguistic delusion — but rather for consistent ones. If Roderick is right that “capitalism” and “socialism” as commonly used don’t have a consistent meaning, then even if you regard them as mere “tools” for the formulation and testing of theories, they are not useful tools for that purpose. If you’re interested in getting down to facts then it is in your interest to critique uses of language that obscure them or deflect you from them.

That said, it is a serious error to compare the relationship between clear language and true theories to the relationship between letters and words, or between hammers and nails. Of course it’s true that whether or not to use a particular word to express a particular idea is a purely pragmatic decision that you ought to make on the basis of the audience and the conversational context. But Roderick’s issue is not with the word “capitalism” as such, but rather the way in which that word is commonly used. And that’s quite a different issue. In this sense, language is a means to (among other things) formulate and test theories, but it is not an instrumental means to an end that can be spelled out independently of it. Theories are, after all, made of language, not just made with it, and using language clearly is a constitutive means to an end of which it is itself a part. (In a sense, singing “Tochter aus Elysium” in the second line is only a means to the end of singing the Ode to Joy. But it would make little sense to say “Quit worrying about singing ‘Tochter aus Elysium’ in the second line; just worry about singing the Ode to Joy right, and the second line will sort itself out.” If you fail to use the right means here, then you have also failed to achieve the end.)

Frank:

I think that what Popper is recommending here is that one should try to avoid getting bogged down in definitional disputes and, more controversially, that ultimate precision about terms is not required for most purposes. The rough and ready approximate understanding of these terms does generally suffice.

Roderick’s point has nothing to do either with the alleged need for precise definitions, or with the “right” definition to attach to the words “capitalism” and “socialism.” What he says is that “the rough and ready approximate understanding of these terms” as commonly employed conceals an internal inconsistency. Criticizing common usage, if it is indeed as he says it is, doesn’t turn on any claims about precision in definitions; it turns on the idea that incoherent meanings don’t get you anywhere.

Of course, you also claim that you disagree with him on the way in which the words are commonly used. But then your issue with him is one of substantive disagreement over what the linguistic situation is, not the sort of methodological disagreement that Paul’s quotations from Popper are trying to suggest.

As far as that substantive disagreement goes, I agree with you that it’s usually pretty clear that calling yourself “anti-capitalist” usually conveys pretty clearly that you’re opposed to the free market. But I don’t see how that’s inconsistent with what Roderick said. If your understanding of capitalism is something like “this free-market system that currently prevails in the western world,” then saying you oppose “this free-market system that currently prevails in the western world” will (among other things) commit you to opposing the free market. The problem is that it also commits you to thinking that what you’re opposing is the actually existing political economy in which we live. If your “pro-capitalist” opponents buy into the package-deal that you are employing, then they will think that they are committed to defending the actually existing political economy in which we live as part of defending the free market. But since we don’t live in anything like a free market, it’s foolish for them to do so.

And frankly I simply have no idea what is meant when someone calls herself “pro-capitalist” or “anti-socialist.” Some people tend to use these terms strictly to describe their adherence to free market principles; others tend to ue them strictly to describe their solidarity with actually existing big business; others (probably most) tend to use them to describe the chimerical combination of the two attitudes that they’ve mistakenly bought into. In practice I have seen plenty of people denounce voluntary strikes for higher wages, advocate for “right to work” laws which explicitly violate the right of free contract, endorse explicitly protectionist arguments for copyrights and patents, apologize for government lending agencies such as the IMF and World Bank, endorse state auction “privatization” schemes, etc., all in the name of being “pro-capitalist” or “anti-socialist.” Clintonian liberals, for that matter, often use this sort of language to justify anti-trust interventions and the institution of government-run, completely fabricated “markets,” such as those in transferable political correctness “credits” of various sorts. Of course, whenever someone does that (and they do it very often), you could insist, “But no, you see, ‘capitalism’ really means a free market! Not patronage for big business!” But then it’s you, not Roderick, who’s getting bogged down in semantics. It is precisely by exposing and dealing with the inconsistencies in common usage that we can avoid that kind of unproductive squabbling.