Things tagged (for better or worse) "pragmatism"
Fall 2011 PHIL 4101 PRAGMATISM: CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PHIL 4101-001/PHIL 5101-001/HUM & SSC 5101-001
Dr. David Hildebrand
Fall 2011, MW 2:00- 3:15 P.M.
Honi Haber Library, Plaza M-108
Description: Perhaps the three most important questions for our nation of immigrants have been: Who are we? What do we believe? Should we accept the views of our forefathers? In addressing these questions, American philosophers have both accepted and rejected their intellectual heritage. In their most critical moments, American philosophers argue that philosophy must reassert itself as an active, constructive, and ethical force in human life. Doing this means shaking and breaking many traditional philosophical distinctions including those between: mind and body, fact and value, appearance and reality, self and society, probability and certainty, and language and world. This course will survey the classic philosophical themes developed and sustained by prominent 19th and 20th century philosophers, with a focus upon American Pragmatism. We'll begin right away with classical American Pragmatism (including Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey) and proceed to look at how these major thinkers' pragmatic themes both influenced and were echoed by a range of 20th century thinkers including Rorty, Putnam, West, Quine, and others.
Article Was Kenneth Burke a Pragmatist?
"Was Kenneth Burke a Pragmatist?" Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society (Summer 1995) At present, Kenneth Burke is primarily known as a critic of literature and rhetoric, not as a philosopher. Important affinities between Burke's views and the epistemological and metaphysical doctrines of Classical Pragmatists (e.g., Dewey and Peirce) call for a philosophical reappraisal of Burke. Part one sketches significant areas of agreement between Burke and Pragmatism, while part two details several crucial differences. I conclude that Burke is most "Pragmatic" in his early writings; his later writings on "logology" (which systematize his views on the structure of language) depart from Pragmatism's traditional emphases upon method and situation-based analysis.
Article Putnam, Pragmatism, and Dewey
"Putnam, Pragmatism, and Dewey." Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society (Winter 2000). Recent writings by Hilary Putnam indicate the seriousness with which he has moved toward pragmatism. Putnam has not only characterized his own position as similar to pragmatism, he has written a number of essays presenting the views of the classical pragmatists, especially James, Dewey, and Peirce. "Putnam, Pragmatism, and Dewey" examines fundamental problems with Putnam's recent efforts, especially as they pertain to Dewey's epistemology.
Spring 2005 Phl 4102 American Ethics
AMERICAN ETHICS
PHIL 4102-3/71600 and PHIL 5102-3/72217
TR 4:00PM - 5:15PM
Course Description: The philosophical tradition of ethics has focused upon such notions as duties, consequences, and character and has sought, since Plato, to find the summum bonum or “highest good.” There is, however, a strain of American philosophers who could not constrain their conceptions of moral experience within traditional approaches. Moral life was messier than the tradition portrayed—more complex, more novel, and prone to both chance and the currents of evolution. This course seeks to identify the ways in which there is an “American Ethics” that is not only different from its Western forebears but is somehow emblematic of our country. To do this we will examine a number of representative American philosophers, methods, and/or problems from the 19th+20th century. Pragmatist ethics will form a central portion of the course but we will look at figures that both preceded and followed the pragmatists in order to see American ethics in a larger framework.
Course texts: Available at Auraria and Big Dog Textbooks (1331 15th Street). Also, if you desire, online (see, for example, http://used.addall.com). If you buy your book online, make sure (1) that it is the correct edition, and (2) that you have it in time for class. See also http://www.bigdogtextbooks.com here in Denver.
Fall 2007 PHIL 4101 PRAGMATISM: CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PRAGMATISM:
CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Dr. David Hildebrand, UCDHSC
Fall 2007, TTh 4-515 PM; PL 211
PHIL 4101-001/PHIL 5101-001; HUM/SSC 5101-001
Description
Perhaps the three most important questions for our nation of immigrants have been: Who are we? What do we believe? Should we accept the views of our forefathers? In addressing these questions, American philosophers have both accepted and rejected their intellectual heritage.
In their most critical moments, American philosophers argue that philosophy must reassert itself as an active, constructive, and ethical force in human life. Doing this means shaking and breaking many traditional philosophical distinctions including those between: mind and body, fact and value, appearance and reality, self and society, probability and certainty, and language and world.
This course will survey the classic philosophical themes developed and sustained by prominent 19th and 20th century philosophers, especially American Pragmatism. We'll begin with Emerson's Transcendentalism before we spend considerable time on classical American Pragmatism (including Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and G.H. Mead). Contemporary pragmatism will also be carefully explored by examining the work of two important inheritors of classical pragmatism, Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam.
Spring 2008 4740 Empiricism
Empiricism
Spring 2009 PHIL 4101 PRAGMATISM: CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PRAGMATISM:
CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Dr. David Hildebrand
Spring 2009, TTh 4:00p-05:15p at SO 109
PHIL 4101-001/PHIL 5101-001
Jump to readings: Schedule of Readings
Description: Perhaps the three most important questions for our nation of immigrants have been: Who are we? What do we believe? Should we accept the views of our forefathers? In addressing these questions, American philosophers have both accepted and rejected their intellectual heritage. In their most critical moments, American philosophers argue that philosophy must reassert itself as an active, constructive, and ethical force in human life. Doing this means shaking and breaking many traditional philosophical distinctions including those between: mind and body, fact and value, appearance and reality, self and society, probability and certainty, and language and world. This course will survey the classic philosophical themes developed and sustained by prominent 19th and 20th century philosophers, especially American Pragmatism. We'll begin right away with classical American Pragmatism (including Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and G.H. Mead). Contemporary pragmatism will also be carefully explored by examining the work of feminism, naturalism and one important inheritor of classical pragmatism, Richard Rorty.Required Texts: Available at bookstore and, if you desire, online (see, for example, http://used.addall.com). If you buy your book online, make sure (1) that it is the correct edition, and (2) that you have it in time for class.
Article Pragmatism Neopragmatism, and Public Administration
"Pragmatism, Neopragmatism, and Public Administration" (Administration & Society, 2005) The project of harmonizing ideals and practical realities often falls to the organs of public administration. Because this task involves the application of general and fixed concepts (policies, laws, standards) to particular and fluid practicalities (situations, circumstances, persons), those in public administration need strategies to deal with unusual or problematic cases. Pragmatism seems to offer such a strategy. But which pragmatism should be used? This article is a philosophical response to two disputes. What distinguishes classical pragmatism and neopragmatism? And which pragmatism holds greater promise for public administration agencies and why? The author discusses how public administration agents might find themselves obligated to philosophize about their agency?s fundamental mission and how the resources of pragmatism might serve that (largest scale) problematic situation. Finally, the author considers two obstacles likely to be encountered by those who employ a pragmatist approach. The article may be found online at SAGE Publications.
Article Does Every Theory Deserve A Hearing
"Does Every Theory Deserve A Hearing? Evolution, Creationism, and the Limits of Democratic Inquiry." Southern Journal of Philosophy XLIV: June 2006, pp. 217-236. It's been 80 years since Dewey bemoaned fundamentalist attacks upon evolutionary biology. Despite staggering progress in science and technology, there are pitched battles over how evolution should be taught and more fundamentally what inquiries are worthy of the label "science." This paper examine the epistemological conflict and discusses some of the resources pragmatists have for repairing the damage done by this conflict to inquiry, community, and democracy.
Article Genuine Doubt and the Community in Peirce's Theory of Inquiry
"Genuine Doubt and the Community in Peirce's Theory of Inquiry." Southwest Philosophy Review (Spring 1996) Full article may be downloaded here (PDF) Peirce defined "inquiry" as the passage from genuine doubt to settled belief; in the long run, a properly-functioning scientific community's inquiries must converge toward Truth. To explain why Peirce believed such convergence is necessary, I examine two notions: community and genuine doubt. Genuine doubt, I find, not only makes convergence possible, but also constitutes the starting point of most inquiries. The exception is philosophical inquiry, where, increasingly in Peirce's later writings, "genuine doubt" is supplanted by "cultivated doubt." This shift creates a tension in his general account of inquiry which I attempt to moderate by offering two interpretations.
Book: Beyond Realism
Beyond Realism and Antirealism: John Dewey and the Neopragmatists (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2003)
