The Pragmatism Reader: From Peirce through the Present

Published by Princeton University Press 2011

The Pragmatism Reader

From Peirce through the Present

Edited by: Robert B. Talisse and Scott F. Aikin

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400838684

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Pragmatism Reader is the essential anthology of this important philosophical movement. Each selection featured here is a key writing by a leading pragmatist thinker, and represents a distinctively pragmatist approach to a core philosophical problem. The collection includes work by pragmatism's founders, Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, as well as seminal writings by mid-twentieth-century pragmatists such as Sidney Hook, C. I. Lewis, Nelson Goodman, Rudolf Carnap, Wilfrid Sellars, and W.V.O. Quine. This reader also includes the most important work in contemporary pragmatism by philosophers like Susan Haack, Cornel West, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, Cheryl Misak, and Robert Brandom. Each selection is a stand-alone piece--not an excerpt or book chapter--and each is presented fully unabridged.

The Pragmatism Reader challenges the notion that pragmatism fell into a midcentury decline and was dormant until the advent of "neopragmatism" in the 1980s. This comprehensive anthology reveals a rich and highly influential tradition running unbroken through twentieth-century philosophy and continuing today. It shows how American pragmatist philosophers have contributed to leading philosophical debates about truth, meaning, knowledge, experience, belief, existence, justification, and freedom.

Covers pragmatist philosophy from its origins to today

Features key writings by the leading pragmatist thinkers

Demonstrates the continuity and enduring influence of pragmatism

Challenges prevailing notions about pragmatism

Includes only stand-alone pieces, completely unabridged

Reflects the full range of pragmatist themes, arguments, concerns, and commitments

Author / Editor information

Robert B. Talisse is professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. His books include A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy. Scott F. Aikin is senior lecturer in philosophy at Vanderbilt. He is the coauthor, with Robert Talisse, of Pragmatism: A Guide for the Perplexed.

Reviews

"An excellent collection. The Pragmatism Reader currently offers the best selection of writings from the pragmatist tradition, and successfully presents the movement as a continuous and coherent strain in twentieth- and twenty-first-century philosophy."—Henry Jackman, York University

"[T]his is an excellent collection, not simply of pragmatist thinkers, but serious and substantive philosophers. Talisse and Aiken have done a truly fine job of exhibiting the contributions to first-order philosophy by pragmatist-oriented thinkers over the years and helping to dispel the notion that pragmatism has been on the sidelines of important philosophical work. I recommend it, not only as an introduction to pragmatism (indeed, more than an introduction), but also as a work of fecund philosophical engagement."---David Boersema, Essays in Philosophy

"With an excellent selection of papers by all the classical pragmatists and a very well judged collection of pieces by more recent philosophers sympathetic to pragmatism, this superb volume provides material for a successful course on pragmatism and also offers readers a fascinating overview of its varieties."—Christopher Hookway, University of Sheffield

"The Pragmatism Reader does a much better job of bringing into bold relief the continuities in the development of pragmatism from its inception to the present than does any other anthology. Talisse and Aikin's introduction is bold and original and helps the reader to see these strands of continuity among the different pieces included here."—Richard M. Gale, professor emeritus, University of Pittsburgh

"The alleged patterns of storied philosophies are always contestable, and contested. Do they reflect objective joints or only artificial impositions? This collection helps to show just how objective the pattern of pragmatism is, and how broad its scope. It is a welcome arrangement of skillfully selected contributions."—Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Some Consequences of Four Incapacities Charles S. Peirce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
The Fixation of Belief Charles S. Peirce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
How to Make Our Ideas Clear Charles S. Peirce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results William James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth William James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
The Will to Believe William James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy John Dewey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
The Influence of Darwinism on Philosophy John Dewey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Creative Democracy—The Task before Us John Dewey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
The Democratic Way of Life Sidney Hook Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
A Pragmatic Conception of the A Priori C. I. Lewis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Words, Works, Worlds Nelson Goodman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
The New Riddle of Induction Nelson Goodman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Two Dogmas of Empiricism W. V. O. Quine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
On What There Is W. V. O. Quine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Natural Kinds W. V. O. Quine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology Rudolf Carnap Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Language as Thought and as Communication Wilfrid Sellars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Donald Davidson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
Meaning and Reference Hilary Putnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Realism with a Human Face Hilary Putnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
A Reconsideration of Deweyan Democracy Hilary Putnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
The World Well Lost Richard Rorty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
Solidarity or Objectivity? Richard Rorty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy Richard Rorty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	381
Dispensing with Metaphysics in Religious Thought Cornel West Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	403
Double-Aspect Foundherentism A New Theory of Empirical Justification Susan Haack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	407
Pragmatic Adjudication Richard A. Posner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
From Truth to Semantics A Path through Making It Explicit Robert Brandom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	440
Truth as Convenient Friction Huw Price Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	451
Making Disagreement Matter Pragmatism and Deliberative Democracy Cheryl Misak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	471
Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	485
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	487