Pragmatism: From Progressivism to Post-Modernism

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Description

American pragmatism can be best understood against the background of 20th-century American culture and politics. The essays in this volume, by philosophers, cultural critics, and historians, explore the development of pragmatism in this context. The emphasis in this volume is on the interrelations between the philosophical or foundational issues raised by pragmatism as a philosophical movement, and the cultural, political, and educational programs that have been associated with pragmatism from James, Dewey, and Mead to Rorty and Cornel West. The book is divided into three parts, reflecting the periods of Progressivism, Positivism, and Postmodernism. The contributors explore the ways in which pragmatist writings have been appropriated or misappropriated in the literature and practice of Progressive reformers, positivist academics, end-of-ideology liberals, and postmodernists.

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This valuable collection of 16 essays by historians, philosophers, and literary scholars greatly benefits from careful arrangement under three general topics (the Progressive Era; positivism and the linguistic turn; the post-modern condition) and strong introductory essays by the editors.-Choice
"This valuable collection of 16 essays by historians, philosophers, and literary scholars greatly benefits from careful arrangement under three general topics (the Progressive Era; positivism and the linguistic turn; the post-modern condition) and strong introductory essays by the editors."-Choice

Author Bio

ROBERT HOLLINGER is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University. He is the author of The Dark Side of Liberalism: Elitism vs. Democracy, and Postmodernism in the Social Sciences (both forthcoming), editor of Hermeneutics and Praxis (1985), and co-editor of Philosophy: The Basic Issues, 4th ed. (1993) and Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science 2d ed. (1988). DAVID DEPEW is Professor of Philosophy, California State University at Fullerton. He is the author of the article Philosophy in America in the Twentieth Century, in Encyclopedia of United States History in the 20th Century (forthcoming) -author (with Bruce Weber) of Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection (1993) -editor (with Bruce Weber) of Entropy, Information, and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution (1988), and Evolution at a Crossroads: The New Biology and the New Philosophy of Science (1985) and editor of The Greeks and the Good Life (1981).