Pragmatic Fashions: Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd

by John J. Stuhr

Overview

John J. Stuhr, a leading voice in American philosophy, sets forth a view of pragmatism as a personal work of art or fashion. Stuhr develops his pragmatism by putting pluralism forward, setting aside absolutism and nihilism, opening new perspectives on democracy, and focusing on love. He creates a space for a philosophy that is liable to failure and that is experimental, pluralist, relativist, radically empirical, radically democratic, and absurd. Full color illustrations enhance this lyrical commitment to a new version of pragmatism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253018915
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	11/10/2015
Series:	American Philosophy
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John J. Stuhr is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and American Studies and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Emory University. He is author of Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and the Future of Philosophy and editor of 100 Years of Pragmatism: William James's Revolutionary Philosophy (IUP, 2010).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Expressivism and Pragmatism
1. Chance Vistas and Sincerity in the Cosmic Labyrinth
2. Philosophies as Fashions
3. Does Philosophy Progress?: Criticism without Critique
4. Convergence and Difference: Immanent Pluralism
5. It's All Relative: Beyond Absolutism and Nihilism
6. Expressions of Nature: Refashioning the Hudson River School
7. Old Ideals Crumble: War and the Limits of Philosophy
8. Democracy as Public Experiment: Beyond Mission Accomplished and Mission Impossible
9. A Terrible Love of Hope: Toward Peace Before Death
10. Absurd Pragmatism
11. The Spring Collection: Intermedia Moralia; or, a Romance of Our Incoherence
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

"A wide-ranging and impassioned text that argues for the ongoing relevance of pragmatism in contemporary life. John J. Stuhr reminds us that philosophy should be measured by the degree that it abandons the armchair and ventures outside of the narrow confines of the academy to inspire, motivate, and enact concrete change in oneself, others, and the wider world."

Megan Craig

A wide-ranging and impassioned text that argues for the ongoing relevance of pragmatism in contemporary life. John J. Stuhr reminds us that philosophy should be measured by the degree that it abandons the armchair and ventures outside of the narrow confines of the academy to inspire, motivate, and enact concrete change in oneself, others, and the wider world.

Megan Craig]]>

A wide-ranging and impassioned text that argues for the ongoing relevance of pragmatism in contemporary life. John J. Stuhr reminds us that philosophy should be measured by the degree that it abandons the armchair and ventures outside of the narrow confines of the academy to inspire, motivate, and enact concrete change in oneself, others, and the wider world.

author of Levinas and James: Toward a Pragmatic Phenomenology - Megan Craig

A wide-ranging and impassioned text that argues for the ongoing relevance of pragmatism in contemporary life. John J. Stuhr reminds us that philosophy should be measured by the degree that it abandons the armchair and ventures outside of the narrow confines of the academy to inspire, motivate, and enact concrete change in oneself, others, and the wider world.

Vanderbilt University - Charles E. Scott

How might philosophers speak from and to experiences that are based on values and habits that are destructive for the ends they intend? Speak in ways that encourage and support constructive transformations of those obstructive ways of life? John J. Stuhr develops a head-on confrontation with many habitual types of Western philosophical thought as he wrestles with fundamental questions of language, philosophical method, communal life, and personal transformations.

Editorial Reviews

"How might philosophers speak from and to experiences that are based on values and habits that are destructive for the ends they intend? Speak in ways that encourage and support constructive transformations of those obstructive ways of life? John J. Stuhr develops a head-on confrontation with many habitual types of Western philosophical thought as he wrestles with fundamental questions of language, philosophical method, communal life, and personal transformations."—Charles E. Scott, Vanderbilt University

"A wide-ranging and impassioned text that argues for the ongoing relevance of pragmatism in contemporary life. John J. Stuhr reminds us that philosophy should be measured by the degree that it abandons the armchair and ventures outside of the narrow confines of the academy to inspire, motivate, and enact concrete change in oneself, others, and the wider world."—Megan Craig, author of Levinas and James: Toward a Pragmatic Phenomenology

From the Publisher