Pragmatism, Old And New: Selected Writings

Pragmatism was one of the most fruitful philosophical movements of the late 19th century and has continued to be a significant influence on some of the major figures in philosophy. Today some even speak of a remarkable renaissance of Pragmatism. Very often though, what they have in mind is not the rich heritage of the classical pragmatist tradition, but a radical self-styled neo-Pragmatism that has of late transmuted the reformist aspirations of classical Pragmatism into a kind of revolutionary anti-intellectualism. Asking what we can learn from the older Pragmatist tradition and what we can salvage from the intellectual shipwreck of the new, the editors have put together a wide-ranging anthology that tells the story of the evolution of Pragmatism from its origins to the radical literary-political neo-Pragmatism recently popularised by Richard Rorty. The book presents a broad and diverse selection of Pragmatism writings on logic, metaphysics, theory of inquiry, philosophy of mind and religion and education, aesthetics plus moral social and political philosophy.