Varieties of Pragmatism

... and the D&D chart.

Devotees of role-playing games are familiar with "alignment" on a two-axis system. It is considered a critical way to define a fantasy character.

One axis is law-versus-chaos. The other axis is good-versus-evil. Each axis has two extremes and a "neutral" position in the middle, allowing for a grid of nine.

In essence, "good" means respectful of life. "Evil" means disrespect for life. "Order" means obedience to authority and, presumably as a correlated matter, reliability. "Chaos" means resistance to authority, which can in turn means unreliability as an ally.

In the world of comic book characters, Superman is "lawful good". Batman is "neutral good". He'll follow the rules or he'll evade or break then in order to control the criminal element (the evil characters) in Gotham. Chaotic good? Someone like the Punisher. Someone with the same goal -- opposition to the plainly evil characters and to their ability to continue to do harm -- who is not just indifferent but averse to doing it the 'right way'.

Who would be such a goof as to adapt these nine fantasy categorizations to the task of explaining the varieties of pragmatism? Who indeed....

https://twitter.com/clarkjosephf/status/1253886694803333120?lang=en

I love the fact that William James shows up as the "chaotic good" pragmatist. He is the Punisher of epistemology.

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