Pragmatism Quotes

“Dewey writes: ‘conceptions, theories and systems of thought … are tools. As in the case of all tools, their value resides not in themselves but in their capacity to work shown in the consequences of their use’ (Dewey, MW 12: 163).”
― Michael Bacon, Pragmatism: An Introduction

“Philosophy and religion share an emphasis upon the eternal, and one of philosophy’s recurrent themes is the identification of the real with the unchanging and a correspondingly low view of the mutable and contingent. Dewey claims that this is because change is assumed to indicate imperfection, and that only the eternal can be perfect.”
― Michael Bacon, Pragmatism: An Introduction

“Dewey uses Darwin to naturalize Hegel, giving up on the latter’s idea that there is an inevitable progression in history and focusing instead on the suggestion that there is nothing that transcends our particular human purposes.”
― Michael Bacon, Pragmatism: An Introduction