Classical American Pragmatism: Its Contemporary Vitality - Hardcover

9780252024542: Classical American Pragmatism: Its Contemporary Vitality

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252024540 ISBN 13: 9780252024542

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1999

This collection provides a thorough grounding in the philosophy of American pragmatism by examining the views of four principal thinkers - Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead - on issues of central and enduring importance to life in human society. Pragmatism emerged as a characteristically American response to an inheritance of British empiricism. Presenting a radical reconception of the nature of experience, pragmatism represents a belief that ideas are not merely to be contemplated but must be put into action, tested and refined through experience. At the same time, the American pragmatists argued for an emphasis on human community that would offset the deep-seated American bias in favor of individualism. Far from being a relic of the past, pragmatism offers a dynamic and substantive approach to questions of human conduct, social values, scientific inquiry, religious belief, and aesthetic experience that lie at the center of contemporary life. This volume is an invaluable introduction to a school of thought that remains vital, instructive, and provocative.

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About the Author:

Anderson is an associate professor of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University.

Rosenthal received her PhD from Tulane University and is a professor of philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans.

Hausman is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Review:

ADVANCE PRAISE "The wise and informed introduction by John E. Smith sets the stage for these trenchant and mature essays on the rich contemporary viability of the Classical American philosophical tradition. Surely, this collection provides a lodestar for further inquiry by the wider reflective community."-John J. McDermott, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University "Clear, accessible, illuminating presentations of key dimensions in the thought off our master pragmatists. The well-educated general reader will profit enormously from this very solid, very even, and very well organized volume."-Donald Sherburne, author of A Whiteheadian Aesthetic

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