Introducing Pragmatism

323 Pages·2021·2.537 MB·English

by  Cornelis de Waal

Introducing Pragmatism
This unique introduction fully engages and clearly explains pragmatism, an
approach to knowledge and philosophy that rejects outmoded conceptions of
objectivity while avoiding relativism and subjectivism. It follows pragmatism’s
focus on the process of inquiry rather than on abstract justifications meant
to appease the skeptic. According to pragmatists, getting to know the world
is a creative human enterprise, wherein we fashion our concepts in terms
of how they affect us practically, including in future inquiry. This book
fully illuminates that enterprise and the resulting radical rethinking of basic
philosophical conceptions like truth, reality, and reason.
Author Cornelis de Waal helps the reader recognize, understand, and
assess classical and current pragmatist contributions—from Charles S. Peirce
to Cornel West—evaluate existing views from a pragmatist angle, formulate
pragmatist critiques, and develop a pragmatist viewpoint on a specific issue.
The book discusses:
• Classical pragmatists, including Peirce, James, Dewey, and Addams;
• Contemporary figures, including Rorty, Putnam, Haack, and West;
• Connections with other twentieth-century approaches, including
phenomenology, critical theory, and logical positivism;
• Peirce’s pragmatic maxim and its relation to James’s Will to Believe;
• Applications to philosophy of law, feminism, and issues of race and racism.
Cornelis de Waal is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University–Purdue
University Indianapolis and Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions of the Charles
S. Peirce Society. Previously he was one of the editors of The Writings of
Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition. In addition to numerous journal
articles, he authored Charles S. Peirce: A Guide for the Perplexed (2013) and
On Mead (2002). He is currently editing The Oxford Handbook of Charles S.
Peirce.

Introducing Pragmatism
A Tool for Rethinking Philosophy
Cornelis de Waal
First published 2022
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-36716-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-36718-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-19973-1 (ebk)
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To Kelly, Sophia, Olivia

Contents
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Peirce and the Principle of Pragmatism 9
2.1 The Limits of Thought 9
2.2 The Purpose of Thought 12
2.3 The Fixation of Belief 14
2.4 The Fixation of Meaning 19
2.5 Applications of the Pragmatic Maxim 21
2.6 The Pragmatic Conception of Truth 25
3 William James: Pragmatism and the
Will to Believe 31
3.1 Birth of the Term “Pragmatism” 33
3.2 The Will to Believe 35
3.3 The Principle of Pragmatism 40
3.4 Applications of the Principle 43
3.5 Rationalism, Empiricism, Pragmatism 44
3.6 Truth as Agreement With Reality 46
3.7 Taking Truth Further 52
4 The Pragmatic Humanism of F.C.S. Schiller 57
4.1 Broadening the Will to Believe 58
4.2 Pragmatism 60
4.3 Humanism 62
4.4 The Making of Truth 64
4.5 Three Pragmatic Views on Truth 66
4.6 The Making of Reality 69
viii Contents
5 European Reception: France and Italy 73
5.1 French Philosophy of Action 73
5.2 The Leonardo Movement 76
5.3 The Magical Pragmatism of Giovanni Papini 79
5.4 Giovanni Vailati’s Logical Pragmatism 82
5.5 The Prezzolini–Calderoni Debate 88
6 Peirce Revisited: The Normative Turn 95
6.1 Peirce’s Later Years 96
6.2 Response to James’s Will to Believe 97
6.3 The Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism 101
6.4 In Search of a Proof 103
6.5 Phenomenology and the Normative Sciences 106
6.6 Pragmatism Versus Pragmaticism 110
6.7 Logic and Semiotics 113
6.8 Pragmatism as the Logic of Abduction 115
7 Josiah Royce and George Herbert Mead 119
7.1 Pure Pragmatism and the Absolute Knower 120
7.2 Toward a Community of Interpretation 122
7.3 The Social Pragmatism of George Herbert Mead 125
7.4 The Philosophy of the Act 126
7.5 The Social Nature of the Act and the Emergence of the
Self 128
7.6 Mind, Language, and Pragmatism 132
7.7 Perspective Realism 133
8 Pragmatism and the Problems of Life: Dewey,
Addams, and Bourne 136
8.1 Dewey’s Experimental Logic 136
8.2 A Theory of Knowledge 138
8.3 Whether All Judgments Are Practical 141
8.4 Pragmatism and the Problems of Life 144
8.5 Truth and Warranted Assertibility 147
8.6 Jane Addams: A Pragmatist in Action 149
8.7 Randolph Bourne: Pragmatism and Romantic
Anarchy 151
9 Conceptual Pragmatism: From Lewis to Davidson 156
9.1 The Given, the A Priori, and Interpretation 156
9.2 Pragmatism, Truth, and Valuation 163
9.3 Logical Positivism 167
9.4 Pragmatism and Pragmatics 168
Contents ix
9.5 Verificationism 171
9.6 Quine’s More Thorough Pragmatism 173
9.7 On Worlds and World Making 178
9.8 Davidson and a Third Dogma 179
10 The European Reception Revisited 183
10.1 From Russell, to Ramsey, to Wittgenstein 183
10.2 The Pragmatism of Frank Ramsey 185
10.3 Ludwig Wittgenstein: Meaning as Use 186
10.4 Pragmatism and Phenomenology 189
10.5 Pragmatism and Philosophical Anthropology 193
10.6 Critical Theory Rejects Pragmatism 195
10.7 Jürgen Habermas: Critical Theory Turns to
Pragmatism 198
11 The Neopragmatism of Richard Rorty 204
11.1 The Idol of the Mirror 205
11.2 The Impact of Sellars and Quine 206
11.3 From Correspondence to Conversation 208
11.4 Against Truth 212
11.5 Solidarity, Ethnocentricity, and Irony 214
12 Hilary Putnam: Philosophy With a Human Face 220
12.1 The Collapse of the Fact–Value Distinction 223
12.2 Whether Our Norms Are All Subjective 225
12.3 Pragmatism and Internal Realism 226
12.4 Natural Realism 230
13 Susan Haack: Reclaiming Pragmatism 235
13.1 The Empirical Justification of Beliefs 236
13.2 The Analogy of the Crossword Puzzle 237
13.3 Standards of Inquiry 239
13.4 Justification and Truth 241
13.5 Against Vulgar Pragmatism 243
14 Legal Pragmatism 247
14.1 Green’s Pragmatic Reading of Causation 247
14.2 Oliver Wendell Holmes on Legal Liability 250
14.3 Legal Pragmatism in the Twentieth Century 254
14.4 Dewey on Judicial Practice 256
14.5 The Legal Pragmatism of Richard Posner 258
14.6 Haack on Evidence and Inquiry in the Law 261