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The Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism
Pragmatism established a philosophical presence over a century ago through the work of Charles Peirce, William James and John Dewey, and has enjoyed an unprecedented revival in recent years owing to the pioneering efforts of Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam. The essays in this volume explore the history and themes of classic pragmatism, discuss the revival of pragmatism and show how it engages with a range of areas of inquiry including politics, law, education, aesthetics, religion and feminism. Together they provide readers with an overview of the richness and vitality of pragmatist thinking and the influence that it continues to exert both in philosophy and other disciplines. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars of pragmatism, American philosophy and political theory.
- GenresPhilosophyReference
396 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2012
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March 14, 2014
The Cambridge Companion To Pragmatism
Pragmatism is best known as an American approach to philosophy developed by Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey early in the 20th Century. These three thinkers had both commonalities and differences among themselves. Pragmatism has continued to develop and to diverge in the century or more which has followed. The "Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism" (2013) offers a scholarly, thoughtful overview of pragmatism from its American beginnings (although its origins go much deeper) to the present. The book includes a detailed introduction by editor and contributor Alan Malachowski, Fellow of the Centre for Applied Ethics, University of Stellenbosch, followed by fourteen essays. It also includes a highly valuable bibliography. Malachowski writes that the goal of the "Companion to Pragmatism" is to "provide a relatively neutral overview of pragmatism in historical terms -- taking the reader from its inception through to its recent revival while, at the same time, introducing its main ideas." The book succeeds in this goal. As Malachowski adds, those who identify themselves, loosely, as "pragmatists" often differ markedly and sharply from one another about what this means. The "Companion" brings out the differences among pragmatists together with the similarities and differences between pragmatism and other prominent ways of contemporary philosophizing.
The "Companion" consists of three sections titled, "Classic Pragmatism", "Pragmatism Revived", and "Pragmatism at Work". The first section includes largely expository essays on the work of the three American founders with Christopher Hookway, University of Sheffield, examining Charles Peirce's famous and difficult "pragmatic principle" from which pragmatism derives, Alan Malachowski describing the "holism" of William James, arguing that James is more philosophically sophisticated than he is sometimes taken to be, and David Hildebrand,University of Colorado, whose essay on "Dewey's pragmatism: instrumentalism and meliorism" brings a degree of lucidity to Dewey that had almost always escaped me in treatments of his thought. These three essays are suitable as introductions for readers with little prior background.
Pragmatism is usually thought of entering an eclipse which lasted well-through the mid-20th Century, but the second part of this Companion shows that pragmatist themes remained alive in disparate philosophies. The six essays in this part offer varying perspectives while each tries to sort out pragmatic and non-pragmatic elements in the thoughts of different philosophers. Thus, Isaac Nevo, Ben-Gurion University, examines the similarities and differences from pragmatism in the thought of the American philosopher W.V.O. Quine. Richard Bernstein, in the only essay in this volume published elsewhere, offers an insightful essay on pragmatism's ties to Hegelian idealism, a relationship frequently minimized. Mark Orkent, Bates College, also departs from the analytic tone of much of this volume with an essay comparing and contrasting pragmatism and Martin Heidegger in "Being and Time". Phil Hutchinson, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Rupert Read, University of East Anglia, begin their essay with many valuable observations about Wittgenstein's relationship to pragmatism. For me, the essay was weakened by its subsequent environmentalist polemic. The final two essays in this section by David Macarthur, University of Sydney, and Alan Malachowski examine the work of the two philosophers most responsible for the current revival of interest in pragmatism: Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty. The essays explore the relationship of these two figures to the classic pragmatists and explain the ways in which their thought has expanded and diverged.
The final section of the Companion consists of five essays showing how pragmatic philosophers address a number of broad substantive issues Many of these essays use the thinking of the classic pragmatists, their successors, and others as well. In "Pragmatism and Feminism" Marjorie Miller, Purchase College, SUNY, argues that pragmatism and feminism can work together for societal change by combining thought with activism. Her approach shows similarities with the final essay in the volume, "Radical Pragmatism" by Michal Sullivan,Emory University and Daniel Solove, George Washington University Law School. Their essay examines the thought of Federal appeals court judge Richard Posner. They argue that, contra Posner, pragmatism has substantive rather than only methodological teachings to offer in the development of the law and in the decision of cases. The remaining essays offer more methodical, expository approaches which appealed more to my own philosophical tendencies (or bias). Carol Nicholson, Rider University, offers insightful thinking about both pragmatism and education in her essay, "Education and the Pragmatic Temperament". Garry Hagber, Bard College, develops a great deal that is valuable in Dewey's aesthetics in "Dewey's pragmatic aesthetics: the contours of experience." Finally, Anton Van Niekerk, Stellenbosch University, offers an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the religious thought of James, Dewey, and Rorty in his essay, "Pragmatism and Religion".
I learned a great deal from The "Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism". The volume will be highly useful to advanced students and to scholars seeking to understand and engage with pragmatism in its many forms.
Robin Friedman
Pragmatism is best known as an American approach to philosophy developed by Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey early in the 20th Century. These three thinkers had both commonalities and differences among themselves. Pragmatism has continued to develop and to diverge in the century or more which has followed. The "Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism" (2013) offers a scholarly, thoughtful overview of pragmatism from its American beginnings (although its origins go much deeper) to the present. The book includes a detailed introduction by editor and contributor Alan Malachowski, Fellow of the Centre for Applied Ethics, University of Stellenbosch, followed by fourteen essays. It also includes a highly valuable bibliography. Malachowski writes that the goal of the "Companion to Pragmatism" is to "provide a relatively neutral overview of pragmatism in historical terms -- taking the reader from its inception through to its recent revival while, at the same time, introducing its main ideas." The book succeeds in this goal. As Malachowski adds, those who identify themselves, loosely, as "pragmatists" often differ markedly and sharply from one another about what this means. The "Companion" brings out the differences among pragmatists together with the similarities and differences between pragmatism and other prominent ways of contemporary philosophizing.
The "Companion" consists of three sections titled, "Classic Pragmatism", "Pragmatism Revived", and "Pragmatism at Work". The first section includes largely expository essays on the work of the three American founders with Christopher Hookway, University of Sheffield, examining Charles Peirce's famous and difficult "pragmatic principle" from which pragmatism derives, Alan Malachowski describing the "holism" of William James, arguing that James is more philosophically sophisticated than he is sometimes taken to be, and David Hildebrand,University of Colorado, whose essay on "Dewey's pragmatism: instrumentalism and meliorism" brings a degree of lucidity to Dewey that had almost always escaped me in treatments of his thought. These three essays are suitable as introductions for readers with little prior background.
Pragmatism is usually thought of entering an eclipse which lasted well-through the mid-20th Century, but the second part of this Companion shows that pragmatist themes remained alive in disparate philosophies. The six essays in this part offer varying perspectives while each tries to sort out pragmatic and non-pragmatic elements in the thoughts of different philosophers. Thus, Isaac Nevo, Ben-Gurion University, examines the similarities and differences from pragmatism in the thought of the American philosopher W.V.O. Quine. Richard Bernstein, in the only essay in this volume published elsewhere, offers an insightful essay on pragmatism's ties to Hegelian idealism, a relationship frequently minimized. Mark Orkent, Bates College, also departs from the analytic tone of much of this volume with an essay comparing and contrasting pragmatism and Martin Heidegger in "Being and Time". Phil Hutchinson, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Rupert Read, University of East Anglia, begin their essay with many valuable observations about Wittgenstein's relationship to pragmatism. For me, the essay was weakened by its subsequent environmentalist polemic. The final two essays in this section by David Macarthur, University of Sydney, and Alan Malachowski examine the work of the two philosophers most responsible for the current revival of interest in pragmatism: Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty. The essays explore the relationship of these two figures to the classic pragmatists and explain the ways in which their thought has expanded and diverged.
The final section of the Companion consists of five essays showing how pragmatic philosophers address a number of broad substantive issues Many of these essays use the thinking of the classic pragmatists, their successors, and others as well. In "Pragmatism and Feminism" Marjorie Miller, Purchase College, SUNY, argues that pragmatism and feminism can work together for societal change by combining thought with activism. Her approach shows similarities with the final essay in the volume, "Radical Pragmatism" by Michal Sullivan,Emory University and Daniel Solove, George Washington University Law School. Their essay examines the thought of Federal appeals court judge Richard Posner. They argue that, contra Posner, pragmatism has substantive rather than only methodological teachings to offer in the development of the law and in the decision of cases. The remaining essays offer more methodical, expository approaches which appealed more to my own philosophical tendencies (or bias). Carol Nicholson, Rider University, offers insightful thinking about both pragmatism and education in her essay, "Education and the Pragmatic Temperament". Garry Hagber, Bard College, develops a great deal that is valuable in Dewey's aesthetics in "Dewey's pragmatic aesthetics: the contours of experience." Finally, Anton Van Niekerk, Stellenbosch University, offers an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the religious thought of James, Dewey, and Rorty in his essay, "Pragmatism and Religion".
I learned a great deal from The "Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism". The volume will be highly useful to advanced students and to scholars seeking to understand and engage with pragmatism in its many forms.
Robin Friedman
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