The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and AuthorityUniversity of Chicago Press, 1994 M05 2 - 515 pages For much of our century, pragmatism has enjoyed a charmed life, holding the dominant point of view in American politics, law, education, and social thought in general. After suffering a brief eclipse in the post-World War II period, pragmatism has enjoyed a revival, especially in literary theory and such areas as poststructuralism and deconstruction. In this sweeping critique of pragmatism and neopragmatism, one of our leading intellectual historians traces the attempts of thinkers from William James to Richard Rorty to find a response to the crisis of modernism. John Patrick Diggins analyzes the limitations of pragmatism from a historical perspective and dares to ask whether America's one original contribution to the world of philosophy has actually fulfilled its promise. In the late nineteenth century, intellectuals felt themselves in the grips of a spiritual crisis. This confrontation with the "acids of modernity" eroded older faiths and led to a sense that life would continue in the awareness, of absences: knowledge without truth, power without authority, society without spirit, self without identity, politics without virtue, existence without purpose, history without meaning. In Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Weber faced a world in which God was "dead" and society was succumbing to structures of power and domination. In America, Henry Adams resigned from Harvard when he realized there were no truths to be taught and when he could only conclude: "Experience ceases to educate". To the American philosophers of pragmatism, it was experience that provided the basis on which new methods of knowing could replace older ideas of truth. Diggins examines how, in different ways, WilliamJames, Charles Peirce, John Dewey, George H. Mead, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., demonstrated that modernism posed no obstacle in fields such as science, education, religion, law, politics, and diplomacy. Diggins also examines the work of the neopragmatists Jurgen Habermas and Richard Rorty and their attempt to resolve the crisis of postmodernism. Using one author to interrogate another, Diggins brilliantly allows the ideas to speak to our conditions as well as theirs. Did the older philosophers succeed in fulfilling the promises of pragmatism? Can the neopragmatists write their way out of what they have thought themselves into? And does America need philosophers to tell us that we do not need foundational truths when the Founders already told us that the Constitution would be a "machine" that would depend more upon the "counterpoise" of power than on the claims of knowledge? Diggins addresses these and other essential questions in this magisterial account of twentieth-century intellectual life. It should be read by everyone concerned about the roots of postmodernism (and its links to pragmatism) and about the forms of thought and action available for confronting a world after postmodernism. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
THE DISENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD | 22 |
2 | 55 |
Science and the Fate of the Universe | 81 |
Authority Faith Art | 90 |
3 | 102 |
WILLIAM JAMES | 108 |
Pragmatism and Its Paradoxes | 144 |
DEWEY AND | 250 |
Ends | 266 |
PRAGMATISM AND THE PROBLEM OF POWER | 280 |
WALTER LIPPMANN | 322 |
SELF AND SOCIETY | 360 |
THE DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN PRAGMATISM | 386 |
The Case of the Progressive Historians | 423 |
POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND AMERICAS | 427 |
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The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority John Patrick Diggins No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
action Adams and Weber Adams's alienation authority believed century Charles Francis Adams classical concept consciousness continue conviction critics culture democracy desire Dewey's doubt dualism Education emotions epistemology essay ethical existence experience faith fascism felt force framers freedom Habermas Henry Adams historian Holmes human ideals ideas individual inquiry insisted intellectual James's Jefferson John Dewey Jürgen Habermas knowledge language liberal Lionel Trilling Lippmann logic Marxist Max Weber Mead meaning metaphysical mind modern modernist moral nature neopragmatism Niebuhr Nietzsche object past Peirce Peirce's philoso philosophy political poststructuralism poststructuralist practical pragmatism pragmatist Preface to Morals principles problem question rational reality reason regarded Reinhold Niebuhr religion religious remained Richard Rorty Rorty Rorty's Santayana scientific sense Sidney Hook skeptical social society spirit theory things thinkers thinking thought tion tism tradition Trilling Trotsky truth universe values Veblen wanted William James writings wrote York