Pragmatism: The Restoration of Its Scientific Roots

by Nicholas Rescher (Editor)

Overview

Pragmatism is rooted in the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice. Pragmatism was intended, by Charles S. Peirce, its founder, as a doctrine for the rational substantiation of knowledge claims. For Peirce, what mattered was successful prediction and control. Practice was to serve as the arbiter of theory. Objective efficacy, not personal satisfaction, is what matters for fixing opinion in a community of rational inquirers.

According to Nicholas Rescher, later pragmatists saw the matter differently. They envisioned subjective satisfactions, rather than objectively determinable functional effectiveness, as being the aim of the enterprise. Rescher notes that William James, in particular, had an agenda different from that of Peirce.

The two pragmatisms are complete opposites, Rescher argues, in terms of claims and intentions. James's soft pragmatism abandons the classical idea of inquiry as the paramount of truth; it believes that truth is an illusion, an unrealizable figment of the imagination. By contrast, Peirce's hard pragmatism believes that the classic idea of truth remains valid. Rescher seeks to examine and explore pragmatism dialectically, with a conviction that brings pragmatism to life for specialist and generalist alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412846127
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	04/15/2012
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Rescher is distinguished university professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of numerous philosophical works and holds eight honorary degrees from universities on three continents. He has served as a president of the American Philosophical Association, the American Metaphilosophical Society, and the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984, the Belgium Prix Mercier in 2005, the Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in 2007, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Pragmatism at the Crossroads 1

1 Pragmatism and Purpose 21

2 Pragmatism and Language 49

3 Pragmatism, Cognition, and Truth 67

4 Pragmatism and Rational Inquiry 87

5 Pragmatism and the Aims of Science 103

6 A Pragmatic Justification of Induction 133

7 Pragmatism and Logic 151

8 Pragmatism and Philosophy 167

9 Morality, Pragmatism, and the Obligations of Personhood 181

10 The Pragmatism of Ideals 195

11 Political Pragmatism 205

12 Pragmatic Realism in Metaphysics 217

13 Pragmatism and Art 239

14 Pragmatism in Religion (The Case of Pascal) 245

15 Objections to Pragmatism 255

16 Pragmatism's Historical Development 267

References 309

Index of Names 311

Editorial Reviews

Rescher (philosophy, U. of Pittsburgh) criticizes pragmatists’ departure from Charles Pierce’s original commitments to objective truth in favor of subjective, relativistic criteria based in language and psychological satisfaction. He argues that Pierce’s pragmatism relied on an understanding of efficacy determined by the impersonal constraints of reality, not the achievement of solely human purposes, which he attributes to pragmatists like William James, John Dewey and Richard Rorty…. After his introductory essay carving out the stakes of his polemic, he systematically applies his Piercean outlook on major topics such cognition, rational inquiry, logic, morality, politics, metaphysical realism, religion, art.” —Book News “In this book Nicholas Rescher applies his prolific and lucid intelligence to a topic of great interest to him throughout much of his philosophical life. He distinguishes his objective pragmatism from popular caricatures that distort it almost beyond recognition. The true scientific pragmatism, prominently and properly associated with Charles Sanders Peirce, is shown to be defensible against the familiar objections that apply to the caricatures. This is accomplished with impressive success: thoroughly, but also concisely, lucidly, and readably.” —Ernest Sosa, Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers University "Nicholas Rescher has written a detailed, comprehensive study of pragmatism to return it behind the widespread contemporary stress on a Jamesian approach to its original Peiercean roots. Rescher skillfully calls attention to the deep interest of an objectivist form of pragmatism for rational inquiry of all kinds science, logic, politics, metaphysics, religion and other domains. This very useful work should be widely used." —Tom Rockmore, McAnultyCollege Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Duquesne University

From the Publisher