Philosophy 112: Pragmatism and American Philosophy (Undergraduate Course, 2013) (original) (raw)
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Pluralism, Pragmatism and American Democracy: A Minority Report
This book presents the author’s many and varied contributions to the revival and re-evaluation of American pragmatism. The assembled critical perspective on contemporary pragmatism in philosophy emphasizes the American tradition of cultural pluralism and the requirements of American democracy. Based partly on a survey of the literature on interest-group pluralism and critical perspectives on the politics of globalization, the monograph argues for reasoned caution concerning the practical effects of the revival. Undercurrents of “vulgar pragmatism” including both moral and epistemic relativism threaten the intellectual and moral integrity of American thought – and have contributed to the present sense of political crisis. The text chiefly contributes to the evaluation of the contemporary influence of the philosophy of John Dewey (1859–1952) and his late development of the classical pragmatist tradition. In comparison to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), William James (1842–1910), and earlier currents of American thought, Dewey’s philosophy, dominated by its overall emphasis on unification, is weaker in its support for the pluralism of cultural and religious contributions which have lent moral self-restraint to American policy and politics, both foreign and domestic. With all due homage to Dewey’s conception of philosophy, centered on human problems and the need for our ameliorative efforts, the argument is that in the contemporary revival, Dewey’s thought has been too often captured by “post-modernist” bandwagons of self-promotion and institutional control. This work defends democratic individualism against more collectivist and corporatist tendencies in contemporary neo-pragmatism, and it draws upon up-to-date political analysis in defense of America’s long republican tradition. Pragmatism will not and cannot be removed from, or ignored, in American intellectual and moral history; and its influence on disciplines from law to politics, sociology and literary criticism has been immense. However, pragmatism has often been weak in commitment to cultural pluralism and in its accounts of truth.
The history and ideas of pragmatism
Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2006
This paper examines the origins of philosophical pragmatism in the USA in the second half of the 19th-century and its development and use up to the Second World War. The story is told through the lives and ideas of some of the main originators, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, Charles Saunders Peirce, William James and John Dewey. The core idea of pragmatism, that beliefs are guides to actions and should be judged against the outcomes rather than abstract principles, dominated American thinking during the period of economic and political growth from which the USA emerged as a world power. The paper suggests that the practical, commonsense, scientific approach embedded in pragmatism resonates with OR as practised and that much of pragmatism could be attractive to practitioners and academics alike.
New American Pragmatism and the Pragmatist Truth
2012
Hispanic philosophy is no longer what it used to be. One of the defining features of Hispanic way of thought in the last century has possibly been its isolation from the rest of the world and an individualism of which Spaniards have always been proud. Fortunately, this feature does not characterized Contemporary Hispanic Philosophy (at least that brand that vindicates strong links to the Analytic Tradition), since with the very same passion with which Spanish Philosophers defended their differential traits in past centuries, are we nowadays determined to defend our place in the international scene. A proof of this interest in not-being-different is the fact that a substantial part of the philosophy produced in Spain is not produced in Spanish.
Some Political Consequences of Pragmatism
Contemporary Pragmatism, 2019
The question of what political consequences, if any, follow from American pragmatism is nearly as old as pragmatism itself. David Rondel's Pragmatist Egalitarianism breathes new life into this old debate. Rondel outlines a distinctively pluralistic and problem-oriented approach to political philosophy that claims to "reconcile and mediates" the false dichotomies and interminable debates marking philosophical discourses of egalitarian justice. This article identifies two competing visions of the political consequences of Rondel's egalitarian brand of pragmatism: one Rortyan and deflationary, another Deweyan and reconstructive. Rondel's reconstructive argument shows how pragmatism's democratic radicalism pushes beyond the liberal consensus of contemporary theories of justice and towards a more robust conception of democratic socialism, yet the full implications of this position are cut short by the book's competing deflationary mode.
Pragmatism and Democratic Faith
In this article I seek to elucidate the relationship between pragmatism and democratic faith through the writings of William James, John Dewey, and W. E. B. Du Bois. I advanced three claims, all of which when taken together, lays bare the conceptual and political work pragmatism does for us and those in the tradition of American political thought. My argument here, though ambitious, is threefold: First, that James and Dewey provided an orientation toward the social world that emphasized the role of risk, uncertainty, and the necessity of faith, thus undercutting the traditional attribution of metaphysical optimism; second, that Dewey, in particular, tied these themes to a view of democracy that envisioned “the people” or community as a malleable social category in which new descriptions of political life might be invested; and third, that the framework provided by James and Dewey helps elucidate Du Bois’s engagement with his fellows in his classic work of 1903, The Souls of Black Folk, and redirect our attention to the specific resources (i.e. rhetoric and emotions) he believed necessary for shaping “the people.”
medium.com, 2021
Charles Sanders Peirce, founder of a new philosophical current developed in 19 th century America. Three stages of scientific inquiry: abduction, deduction and inference. Determinism and indeterminism. The role of chance. Reality shaped by the practical consequences of those who investigate. The force of consensus in scientific knowledge. William James' analysis of truth as agreement with reality. Radical empiricism and the interaction between subject and object. John Dewey's ideas on inference and the five logical steps of the scientific method.
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, IV-2 | 2012
2017
Dewey’s influence is seldom mentioned in the literature when the relationships between Wittgenstein and pragmatism are addressed. Yet, it should be known that Dewey’s philosophy is clearly echoed in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, as it is expressed in his Philosophical Investigations. In particular, Dewey’s Experience and Nature develops many creeds also taken up by Wittgenstein: for instance, the critic attitude towards artificial notions that break with primary experience (e.g., the “Self”), the will to bring philosophy back to the ordinary, or the emphasis laid on the necessity to pay attention to what lies open to the view. Consequently, the influence of pragmatism on Wittgenstein is far from being limited to the influence of C. S. Peirce or of