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Pragmatism: An Old Name for Some New Ways of Thinking?
Author(s): James T. KloppenbergSource: The Journal of American History, Vol. 83, No. 1 (Jun., 1996), pp. 100-138Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2945476 .
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Pragmatism: n
Old
Name for ome
New Waysof Thinking?
JamesT. Kloppenberg
Williamames as tuck. acing hepublicationfPragmatismn1907,hehad
to decidewhethero
stresshenovelty
f his
philosophyr ts
continuityith
earlierdeas.Jamesoked hat ragmatismould aunch
somethinguite ike
the
protestanteformation"nd predictedhat t wouldbe "the
philosophyf
the uture."
et
he
alsobelievedhat e and
his
fellow ragmatistsere uilding
on a
foundationaid
byphilosophersrom ocrateso theBritish
mpiricists.o
soften
he
blow
he
was aboutto deliver, ames edicatedragmatismo the
memory
fthe
venerated
ohn
tuart
ill
nd
added
he
ubtitle NewName
for
ome
Old
Ways fThinking,oping
hat uch
pedigree ight
estrainhose
inclinedo denounce isprogeny.smy nversionfJames'subtitleuggests,
a
historian
eeking
o
analyze nd explain he currentevival f
pragmatism
confronts
he ame
uestion ames
aced:Have
contemporaryragmatists
esur-
rected
he
deas
f
earlierhinkers
r
rejectedverything
utthename?'
Thereturnf
pragmatism
s
something
f
surprise. hen
avid
A.
Hollinger
recountedhe
areer
f
pragmatism
n
the ournalfAmerican
istory
n
1980,
he
noted hat
ragmatism
ad all but
vanished rom
merican
istoriography
during
he
previous
hree
ecades.
n
1950,Hollinger ecalled, enry
teele
Commager ad proclaimed ragmatismalmost he officialhilosophyf
America";y1980,
n
Hollinger'sudgment,ommentatorsn
Americanulture
had
learned
o
get along ust
fine
without
t. "If
pragmatism
as a
future,"
Hollingeroncluded,
itwill
probably
ook
very
ifferentromts
past,
nd
the
two
may
not
even hare name."Yet
pragmatismoday
s not
only
live
nd
JamesT.
Kloppenberg
s associate
rofessor
f
history
t
Brandeis
University.
For
stimulating
onversation
nd
criticism,
am
grateful
o Susan
Armeny,
homas
Bender,CaseyBlake,
David Depew, John Diggins,RichardFox,Giles Gunn, PeterHansen,David Hollinger,HansJoas,James
Livingston, imothy eltason,
Am6lie
Oksenberg orty, orothyRoss,
CharleneHaddock
Seigfried,
ichard
Shusterman,
avid
Thelen,
Robert
Westbrook,
nd
Joan
Williams.
am
particularly
ndebted
o Richard
.
Bernsteinnd Richard
Rorty
or
heir
enerosity.
'
William
James o Henry ames,May4,
1907,
n The Letters
f
William ames,
d.
Henry
ames 2
vols.,
New
York, 1920), II, 279;
WilliamJames o
TheodoreFlournoy, an. 2, 1907,
in
Ralph
Barton
Perry,
he
Thought nd Character
f
William ames:As
Revealed n Unpublished
orrespondencend Notes,
Together
withHis Published
Writings2 vols.,
Boston,
1935), I, 452-53. James raced ragmatism
o its
ancient oots
in William ames,
ragmatism: New
Namefor
omeOld Ways f
Thinking1907; Cambridge,
Mass., 1978),
30-31.
Ibid., 3.
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Pragmatism:n Old
Namefor omeNew
Ways fThinking? 101
well, t
is
ubiquitous.2
Referenceso
pragmatismccurwith
dizzying
requency
from
hilosophyo social
cience, rom he tudy f
iteratureo that f
ethnicity,
from eminismolegal theory. sHollinger redicted,muchof thispragmatism
looks
very ifferentrom he
original ersion.
ome postmodernists
re
attracted
to
pragmatismecause t offers
devastatingritique
f
all philosophical
ounda-
tions nd
ustifies
wide-ranginginguistic
kepticismgainst
ll claims f
objectiv-
ity,
onsensus,nd
truth. o conceived, s a
species fpostmodernism
ather han
as an
updated
version f
the quest
for
ruth
hatJames dentified
ithSocrates
and Mill,pragmatism
as ndeed become n
old
name
fornew
ways f thinking.
In
this ssay advance hree
rguments:
irst, he
early ragmatists
mphasized
'experience,"
hereas
ome
ontemporaryhilosophers
nd critics ho
havetaken
"the inguisticurn" reuneasywith hat oncept. econd,theearly ragmatists
believed heir
hilosophicaldeashad
particular
thical
nd political
onsequences,
whereas ome
contemporaryhinkers ho
call themselves
ragmatistsonsidert
merely methodof
analysis.Third,the current
ontroversybout pragmatism
matters
rofoundly
o
historians. t
stake
s
not
merely
he
historical
meaning
of
early-twentieth-centuryragmatism,mportants that
ssue
s
for
ntellectual
history.ooming
ven
arger
or
istorians
n
contemporary
ebates
bout
pragma-
tism re
mplicit uestions
bout our practice
f historical
cholarship. wo rival
camps re
trugglingver
he
egacy
f
pragmatism.
arly-twentieth-centuryrag-
matists nvisioned modernist iscourse f
democratic
eliberation
n which
communities
f
nquiry
ested
ypotheses
n
order o solve
roblems;
uch
ontem-
porary
ragmatists
s
RichardJ. ernstein
nd
Hilary
utnam
ustain hat radition.
Other
ontemporaries
uch
s Richard
orty
nd
Stanley
ish
present ragmatism
as a
postmodernist
iscourse
f
critical
ommentary
hatdenies
hatwe
can
escape
the
conventionsnd
contingencies
f
anguage
n
order o connect
with
world
of
experience utside
texts,
et alone
solve
problems
n
that world.
Connecting
with
xperience
s
precisely
hatwe historians
ttempt
o do. These controversies
over ragmatismldand new re hus ieddirectlyo the egitimacyfourpractice
in
studying
he
past
and to the
claimsof our
community
f
inquiry bout
the
significancef the
past
for
he
present.
Experience
nd
Language
The
early ragmatists
ought
o
reorient
hilosophyway
from
nterminable
nd
fruitless
ebates
by
nsisting
hat deas should
be tested
n
practice.
As
part
of
their
verall ommitmento
problem olving, heir
onception f xperienceinked
thephilosophiesfWilliamJames nd JohnDewey,thepragmatists ho most
powerfully
nfluenced
merican ulture
during he first
alf
of the
twentieth
2
David A.
Hollinger,
The Problem f
Pragmatism
n
American
istory,"Journalf American istory,
7
(June
1980), 88, 107. Five
years ater
Hollinger heerfully
dmitted hathisobituary
ad been
premature.ee
David
A. Hollinger,n the
Americanrovince:
tudies n the
Historynd
Historiographyf deas
Bloomington,
1985),
23,
25,
43. A
splendid urveys
Richard .Bernstein,
The
ResurgencefPragmatism,"
ocialResearch,
59
(Winter 992), 813-40.
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102
TheJournalfAmerican
istory June 996
century.3 hat
did James nd Dewey mean by
experience? oth rejected he
dualisms-the
separation
f
the mind from he
body, and of the subjectfrom
theobject-that had divided dealists rom mpiricistsinceRene Descartes nd
John
ocke.
They
were
qually
cornful
fnineteenth-century
dealists'nfatuation
with
ntrospection
nd
positivists'eductionf ll
philosophicaluestions o matter
and motion. nstead
hey referred
ther
metaphorsuch as
"field"
r
"stream"
or
''circuit" o
suggest he continuitynd
meaningfulnessfconsciousnesshat
had eluded bothempiricistsnd
rationalists;heir radical
mpiricism"ested n
their
evised
oncept
f
consciousness.mmediate
xperiences
James nd Dewey
conceived f it is always
elationalit never xists n
the abstract r
in
isolation
from world
ontaining oth ther ersons nd
concrete ealities,s
did Descartes's
rationalistogito), reativeit nevermerely egistersense datapassively, s did
Locke's
mpiricistabularasa),
nd imbuedwith
istoricallypecificultural alues
(it
s
never
human" r universal,
ut always
ersonal nd particular). ragmatists
distrustedll forms f
foundationalism,
ll
attempts
o
establish hilosophy
n
unchanging prioripostulates.Rather han
grounding alues
n
the bedrock
f
timeless
bsolutes, heyurged
us to
evaluate ll of our
beliefs
philosophical,
scientific,
eligious,thical, nd political before he est
hey
onsideredhemost
demanding f all: our
experience s social and
historical eings.4
The
earlypragmatists'onception f
testing he truth f ideas
in
experience
ignited fire torm fcontroversyhatcontinues
o rage. Philosophers
uch
as
Bertrand ussell,
George
antayana,
osiah
oyce, nd Arthur
ovejoymmediately
targeted
ames.
Cultural riticsuch s
Randolph
Bourne,
Van
WyckBrooks,
nd
LewisMumford nd
partisans
f natural
aw
such
as
(the
erstwhile
ragmatist)
Walter
Lippmann
nd Mortimer dler ater
went
after
ewey,
as did
Marxists
such
s TheodorAdorno nd MaxHorkheimer.
ll
these ritics
harged
ragmatists
with
levating
xpedient, ovel,narrowly
ndividualistic,
nstrumental,
nd tech-
nocratic onsiderations
bove truth nd
goodness
s revealed
y
philosophy, rt,
ortheology.5
3 n this ssay will concentraten
WilliamJames nd JohnDewey nstead
f Charles anders eirce or
two reasons. irst, eirce xplained
n 1904 that he "invented" ragmatismto express certainmaximof
logic . . for he analysis f concepts"
ather han "sensation" nd grounded t on "an elaborate tudy f the
nature f igns." or heprecise eason
why eirce's deashave nfluencednalytic hilosophersnd semioticians,
his work s less pertinent ere. See H. S. Thayer,Meaning nd
Action:
A Critical
History f
Pragmatism
(Indianapolis, 981), 493-94. Second,
discussing he recent orrent f work n Peirce s beyond he scope of
this
essay.
For
a fine
ntroduction,
ee JamesHoopes, ed., Peirceon Signs:Writings
n Semiotic
y
Charles
Sanders eirce Chapel Hill, 1991);
on Peirce's
ortured
ife see
JosephBrent,
Charles andersPeirce:
A
Life
(Bloomington, 993); and on his philosophyf science, ee C. F. Delaney, cience,
Knowledge, nd Mind: A
Study n the Philosophy f C. S. Peirce
NotreDame, 1993).
4
On James's oncept f immediate xperience, ee JamesM. Edie, WilliamJames nd Phenomenology
(Bloomington, 987); more omprehensivere Perry, hought nd Characterf
William ames; nd Gerald
E.
Myers,
William
ames:
His
Life
nd ThoughtNew Haven, 1986). On Dewey's
ife nd thought,eeRobert .
Westbrook, ohnDewey nd American emocracyIthaca, 1991); on qualitative
ssues
n
Dewey'sphilosophy,
see JamesGouinlock, ohnDewey'sPhilosophy f Value New York, 1972).
s
A
compilation f these riticisms
s in JohnPatrick iggins, The Promise f
Pragmatism: odernismnd
theCrisis fKnowledge ndAuthorityChicago, 994).James oopes,RobertWestbrook,
nd
are
unpersuaded
by Diggins's nterpretation
f
pragmatism.
or our
explanations
nd
Diggins'sresponse,
ee
James
Hoopes,
"Peirce's ommunityf Signs:The Path
Untaken n American ocialThought," ntellectual istory ewsletter,
17 (1995), 3-6; JamesT. Kloppenberg,The Authorityf Evidence nd
the
Boundaries
f
Interpretation,"
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Pragmatism:
n Old
Namefor
omeNew
Ways
fThinking?
103
Much as
suchcriticismtung,
t sharpened
ames's nd
Dewey's
formulations
of their deas.
Some of their est
writing,
otably
ames's
he
Meaning
f
Truth
(1909) andDewey's xperiencendNature1925), came n responseotheir ritics.
Their larifications
eveal
why
ome ontemporary
ostmodernists'
nthusiasm
nd
some
contemporary
raditionalists'
corn
re misdirected
t James nd
Dewey.
n
Pragmatism
ames
had triedto head
off ome
misunderstandings
n
advance.
Looking
ack
t his argument,
t is
difficult
o see how
anyone
ould
accusehim
of identifying
ruthwith
whatever
t is convenient
o believe.
He specified
our
duty
to
agree
with reality"
nd expressed
xasperation
t
his critics' favorite
formula
or
escribing"
ragmatists
"persons
who
think
hatby saying
whatever
you
find t pleasant
o say nd
calling t truth
ou
fulfil very
ragmatistic
equire-
ment."To the contrary,ames rotested:Pent n, as thepragmatist orethan
anyone
lse sees
himselfo
be,
between
hewholebody
ffunded ruthsqueezed
from
he past and
the coercions
f the world
f sense bout him,
who so well
as
he
feels he mmense ressure
f
objective
ontrol nderwhich
urminds erform
their
perations?"6
When
his critics ontinued
o accusehim of counseling
is readers
o
believe
any
fiction
hey
might
ind
xpedient,
ames
esponded
y
writing he
Meaning
of
Truth.
There
he
specified
he circumstances
n which
one might
nvoke
he
pragmaticestof truth nd clarifiedhe conditions ecessary
or
verifying
ny
proposition
ragmatically.
irst,
nd
fundamentally,
t must orrespond
o
what
is
known
from xperience
bout
the
naturalworld.
The following pparently
unambiguous
entence
as escaped
he attention
fJames's
ritics
and
some of
his
contemporary
hampions:
The notion
of a
reality
ndependent
f
. .
us,
taken
rom
rdinary
ocial
xperience,
ies at the base
of the
pragmatist
efinition
of truth."
Calling
himself n
"epistemological
ealist,"
ames
xplained
hat
he
simply
ook
for
granted
he existence
f that
ndependent
eality
nd did
not
consider
ts
ndependent
xistencehilosophically
nteresting
r
mportant.
econd,
tobe udgedpragmaticallyrue, proposition ust e consistentith he ndividu-
al's
stock f
existing
eliefs,
eliefs
hat
ad withstood
he evere
est f
experience.
That,James
elt ure,
would
rule out simpleminded
ishful
hinking.
inally,
statement
ay
be
considered
ragmatically
rue
f
it
fulfillshose wo
conditions
and
yields
atisfaction.
eligious
aith
epresented
o James
perfect
llustration
of the
appropriate
errain
or
esting
ruth
laims
ragmatically:
n the
absence
f
irrefutable
vidence,
ames
udged
relevant
he
onsequences
ffaith
or
elievers.7
17
(1995),
3-6; James
T. Kloppenberg,
The
Authority
f Evidence nd
the
Boundaries f
Interpretation,"
ibid., 7-15; RobertWestbrook,The Authorityf Pragmatism,"bid., 16-24; and JohnPatrick iggins,
"Pragmatism
nd the
Historians,"bid.,
25-30.
On criticswho valued
the
capacities
f
creative
ndividuals
above
pragmatists'
oncerns
ith ommunities
f
discourse
nd social
ustice, ee
Casey
NelsonBlake,
Beloved
Community:
he Cultural
riticismfRandolph
ourne,Van
Wyck rooks,
Waldo Frank,
nd Lewis
Mumford
(Chapel
Hill, 1990).
On Walter Lippmann
nd Mortimer dler,
see Edward
A. Purcell
Jr.,
The
Crisis
f
Democratic
heory:
cientific
aturalism
ndtheProblem
f
Value Lexington,
y., 1973).
OnTheodor
Adorno
and MaxHorkheimer,
eeMartin ay,
TheDialectical
magination:
Historyf
theFrankfurt
chool
nd the
Institute
f Social Research,
923-1950 Boston,
1973).
6James,
ragmatism,
11-12.
7 WilliamJames,
The
Meaning f
Truth
1909;
Cambridge,
Mass., 1975),
117, 106,
126-28.
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104 The
JournalfAmerican istory June 996
Dewey,
whose
prodding ad helped spurJames o refine is position,
ikewise
argued hroughout
is
ongcareer hatwe should conceive f all our
knowledge
as hypotheseso be tested n experience.
At the coreofJames's nd Dewey'spragmatism as experience
onceived, ot
as
introspection,ut as the
ntersectionf theconscious elfwith heworld.They
conceived f knowing ubjects
s embodiments f reason, motion, nd values,
and
they mphasized he
inadequacy
f
philosophers'ttempts o freeze,
plit
apart,
nd
compartmentalize
he
dynamic ontinuitiesnd multiple
imensions
of life
as we live it. Theyconceived f individuals s always nmeshed n
social
conditions, et selectingwhat
to attend to from he multiplicityf
conscious
experience,nd making istory
ymaking hoices.They onceived f experience
as intrinsicallynd irreducibly eaningful,nd they nsisted hat tsmeanings
were
not
predetermined
r
deducible
from
ny all-encompassingattern.
hey
argued
hat
meanings merge
s cultures
est heir alues
n
practice
nd thatwe
encounter xpressionsf those
meanings
n
the historical ecord.
Languagewas
thus
crucial or
understandinghe experience f others, ut for
James
nd
Dewey anguage
was
only
ne
mportantart
fa
richer, roader
ange
that
ncluded nterpersonal,
esthetic,piritual, eligious, nd
other
relinguistic
or
nonlinguistic
ormsf
xperience.
oreover,hey
ealized hat
anguage
ot
only
feeds
he
magination ut
also
places
onstraintsn
understandingy
pecifying
particular ange
f
meanings.
n
Pragmatism,
ames
wrote,
All
truth
hus
gets
verbally
uilt
out,
stored
p,
and
made
available
for
veryone. ence,
we must
talk onsistently,ust as we must
hink onsistently."lthough
ames
ppreciated
what
s
now characterizeds
the
arbitrariness
f
signifiers,
e
drew
he
following
noteworthyonclusion: Names
are
arbitrary,ut
once
understood hey
must
be
kept
to. We mustn't ow call
Abel 'Cain'
or
Cain
'Abel.'
If
we
do,
we
ungear
ourselves rom he whole
book
of
Genesis,
nd
from
ll its connexions ith
he
universe f
speech and factdown
to the
present
ime."
We
cannot est
every
proposition urselvesrenter he mmediatexperiencef others. etwenever-
theless ave access
o
verifiable
istorical
nowledge,
ven
f
only ndirectly
nd
throughanguage.
"As true s
past
time
tselfwas,
so true
was
Julius
Caesar,
o
truewere ntediluvian
monsters,
ll
in
their
roper
ates
nd
settings.
hat
past
time tself
as,
s
guaranteed y
tscoherence ith
verything
hat's
resent.
rue
as the
present
s the
past
was also."8
Whendealing
with
verifiableata,
whether
about
Caesars
r
about
ceratopsians,
e
place
each
datum
n
the
web
of evidence
we humanshave
been spinning
or enturies. venwhen
onsidering
nverifiable
narrativesuch s
Genesis,we
risk
osing
hecoherencehatmakes
ommunication
possibleunlesswepreservemeaningswithin urweb of culturalmemory.
Dewey
hared hat
ppreciation
fthe
mportance
f
ymbols
nd the
ndispens-
ability
f common
nderstandings.
All
discourse,
ral
or
written,"
e conceded
in
Experiencend Nature, says
hings
hat
urprise
he
one
that
ays
hem."But
thatmakes ommunication
ifficult,
ot
mpossible.
onversationnderstood
s
8
James,
ragmatism,
02-3.
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Pragmatism:
n
Old Name for
Some
New
Ways
of
Thinking?
lOS
. .....
..
.
.
.
.. is.
.....~l
M~~~~~
Wilia
Jaes
in
97,te
ya Pragmtism
a
pbise.Treh
epaized
S~~~cnto une
whcur1 mind
pefr
thi
operaions,
rrqusite
to
ndraking
soci.a:,,l actio.
Throug langag
"th .r.sult
of con-..
jon
exeiec
are cosidre
an trnmitd
Evnt
cano
bepasdfo
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106 TheJournalfAmericanistory June 996
one to another, ut meaningsmaybe shared ymeansof signs"; ventuallyuch
sharing onvertsa conjoiningctivitynto communityf nterestnd endeavor."
Dewey acknowledgedhe challenge f such communication:mutual nterestn
sharedmeanings" oesnot merge all at once r ompletely."ikeJames,owever,
Dewey mphasized hat uch ommunicationan yield rovisionalnderstandings
of thepast, tsmeanings or hepresent, nd itsrole n theformulationf shared
social
aspirations.
or
Dewey, dialogue between ndividuals
n
community, ith
its "direct ive and take," provided he model for such communication:the
wingedwords fconversationn immediatentercourseave vital mportacking
in
the fixed nd frozenwords f writtenpeech."9
Dewey realized that the concept f experience aused difficultiesormany
analytic hilosophers, hodefined hilosophys the tudy f anguage nd ogic,
but
despite
heir
riticism,
e
clung
o it to the end of
his
ife.
Deweytoyed
with
exchanging
he
word "experience" or culture" s late as 1951, but
in
the end
he
refused: we need a cautionarynd directive ord,
ike
experience,o remind
us that he worldwhich s lived, ufferednd enjoyed s well as logically hought
of,has
the
astword
n
all human nquiries nd surmises."
0
n short, hepragmatic
sensibility
f
James nd Dewey was a profoundlyistoricalensibility.
Listing ome
of
the thinkers ho aligned themselves ithJames nd Dewey
suggests
heir normous
mpact. ociologists
uchas
George
Herbert
Mead, legal
theoristsuch as OliverWendellHolmesJr.and LouisD. Brandeis, conomists
such as Richard
T.
Ely, political
theorists uch as
HerbertCroly, heologians
such
as WalterRauschenbuschnd ReinholdNiebuhr,
ounders
f the
National
Association
or he
Advancement f
ColoredPeople
such as W.
E. B. Du Bois
and William
EnglishWalling,
nd feministsuch s
Jane
Addams nd
Jessie
aft
all derived
rom
ragmatism conception
f
experience
nd a
way
of
thinking
about abstract
nd
concrete
roblems
hat riented
hem o
historical
nalysis
nd
away
from nherited
ogmas.
Those who ookedto
philosophy
nd social
cience
for olid,permanentrinciplesound ragmatismisappointingnd unattractive.
But
many
f those
who shared
he
belief
f
James
nd
Dewey
that
he
shift
rom
absolutes
o
the testof
experiencemight ncourage ndependent hinking
nd
democratic
ecision
making
ndorsed
ragmatism
ecause
t unsettled raditional
ways
f
thinking
ithout
inking
nto
the
morass
f
subjectivism
hat wallowed
some
urn-of-the-centuryebels,
uch
s
Friedrich
ietzsche.
he
steadying
ifeline
of
experience revented ragmatists
rom
liding
nto
fantasy, ynicism,
r
self-
indulgence.
As the
ripples ragmatism
ent acrossAmerican
hought
xtendedwider nd
widerduring heearly wentiethentury, heymet
and
eventually eresub-
merged y
more
powerful
aves
oming
rom ther
irections.
mong
hemost
important
f
hesewas
enthusiasm
or he
ertaintyidely
ttributed
o the
natural
sciences,
which
tood
n
sharp
ontrast
o the
pragmatists'orthright
dmission
9
John
Dewey,Experiencend Nature,
nJohnDewey,TheLater
Works,
925-1953, d. Jo Ann Boydston
(17 vols., Carbondale, 981-1990), , 152; JohnDewey, ThePublicand Its Problems,
bid., II, 330-31.
10
Dewey,Experience nd Nature,
ppendix2 (1951), 372.
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Pragmatism:n
Old
Namefor ome
NewWays
f
Thinking?
107
of
uncertainty.
ehaviorists
n
psychology,
ociology,nd
political
cience
dopted
Dewey'senthusiasm
or
testing ypotheses
ut
jettisoned
is
concernwith
the
qualitative imensions fexperiencend inquiryn thehumansciences.
Philosophersurned
ncreasingly
oward he
models
provided y
mathematics
and
physical
cience,
trend
lready
nderway efore
uropean
migres
egan
arriving
n
the
United
States
n
the
1930s.
The
emigres'
uest
for
precision
nd
their
mpatience
with
pragmatism
ombined
o
transform
merican
hilosophy
departments
y
levating
he
tudy
f
anguage nd
ogic nd
marginalizingJames's
and
Dewey's
concernswith
epistemology,
thics,
nd
political
philosophy.
A
discipline
currying
o
master he
ogical ositivismf
Rudolf
arnap,
which
ought
to
rid
philosophy
f
all questions
hatcould
not be
answered
hrough cientific
verification,ad littlenterestn theearly ragmatists'ttachmento immediate
experience
nd their
emocratic
eformist
ensibilities. ewey
had
described he
writings
hat
aunched
he
nalytic
hilosophy
movement,
hich
ought
o
reduce
philosophyo
propositional
ogic,as "an
affront
o
the
common-sense
orld f
action,
ppreciation,nd affection."
he work f
the
British
hilosophersertrand
Russell
nd G. E.
Moore,
Dewey
wrote,
hreatened o
"land
philosophy
n
a
formalism
ike
unto
scholasticism."
ameshad
urged
Russell o
"say
good-bye
o
mathematicalogic
f
you
wish o
preserve our
elations
ith oncrete
ealities "
But
many
midcentury
merican
hilosophersreferred
arnapand Russellto
"common
ense"
nd "concrete
ealities";
hey hared
Russell's
ong-standing
on-
tempt
or
pragmatism.
he
new
breed
of
analytic
hilosophers
hunned
history,
shifted
oward echnical
iscourse,
nd
judged
meaningless
ll
propositions
hat
couldnot
be
verified
y
cientific
rocedures.James
rote
bout
religious
xperience
and
Dewey
bout
aesthetics,
thics,
nd
politics
n
the
hope
of
helping
hilosophy
escape
such
a
narrowly
estrictedole.'2
Developments
ithin
he
pragmatist
amp
also
made
it
ncreasinglyulnerable
to such
attacks.
n
the
1930s
nd
1940s
ome
champions
f
pragmatism
ried o
popularize he deasofJames ndDeweybysimplifyinghem ormass onsump-
tion. Whereas
ames
nd
Dewey
had
urged
heir
eaders o think
ritically
bout
their
wn
experience
nd to take
responsibility
or
haping
heir
ulture,
uch
writerss
Will
Durant,
rwin
dman,
Horace
Kallen,
Max
Otto,
Harry
verstreet,
John Herman
Randall,
and
Thomas
Vernor mith made
available versions f
pragmatism
hat
imply ndorsed he
rough-and-readyemocraticentiments
f
most
middle-class
mericans.
uch efforts
id
littleto
bolster
he
prestige
f
" On the riumph f cientismnAmerican ocial cience,eeDorothy oss,TheOriginsfAmericanocial
Science
Cambridge, ng.,
1991),
390-470.
12
On the
relation
etween cientism
nd
the
transformation
fphilosphy, ee
Daniel J.
Wilson,Science,
Community,nd
the
Transformationf
American hilosophy,
860-1930
Chicago, 1990);
and Laurence .
Smith,Behaviorismnd
LogicalPositivism:
Reassessment
f
the Alliance
Stanford, 986). For
Dewey's
judgment
f
Bertrand
ussell
nd G. E. Moore, ee
JohnDewey,
Essays nExperimental
ogic,
n
John
Dewey,
The MiddleWorks,
899-1924, d. Jo Ann
Boydston15 vols.,
Carbondale, 976-1983),X,
357-58.William
James o
Bertrand
ussell,Oct.4, 1908,
nJames,
Meaning f
Truth, 99-300. Russell's
ibeappeard
n
Bertrand
Russell, Dewey'sNew
Logic,"
n
ThePhilosophy
fJohn ewey,
ed. Paul A.
Schilpp1939; New
York, 1951),
135-56. On
thisvolume, ee
Westbrook, ohn
Dewey and
American
emocracy, 96-500.
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108 TheJournalfAmerican istory June
996
pragmatismmongprofessionalhilosophersrotherAmericanntellectualsspir-
ing
to scientific
recision ather han democratic eliberation.'3
After ewey died in 1952, his ideas faded quickly ntothe background. ven
though ne of the mostprominent hinkers f the post-WorldWar II period,
ReinholdNiebuhr, haredmanyof Dewey's, and especially ames's, deas, his
critique
f
Dewey's ptimism elped discredit ragmatisms too sunnyminded
for
erious ntellectuals. s RichardRorty as put it, pragmatism as crushed
between
the
upper
and the nethermillstones": revivednterest
n
theology
r
existentialismor ome, the "hard-edged mpiricism"f Carnap forothers. or
reasons eflectinghangeswithin hilosophy nd in the broader ulture, hen,
Americanntellectualsuring he 1950s nd 1960s ither orgotboutpragmatism
or, as Hollinger ut it, learned o get along without t. That is no longer rue.
Explaining
he
resurgence
f
pragmatismequires ketching
he
complex ultural
changes hatcleared he ground nd made possible ts return.
4
First he claims o objectivityf the natural ciences,whichhad intimidated
humanists hilethey nspired hilosophersnd social scientists, ererocked y
the
historicistnalysis
f
ThomasKuhn, whose ignificance
n
this ransformation
is difficult
o
overestimate. any
of the schemes
or
ocial engineering
atched
by
enthusiasts
or
cience ed
to
results hat
ranged
rom
isappointingthe
War
onPoverty)o disastrousthewar nVietnam), s boththefindingsf researchers
and their
pplication
o
social roblems
ere hown o
be grounded
n
questionable
assumptionsnd, despite
he scientists' otion f
value
neutrality,usceptible
o
appropriation
or
deological
urposes."1
Then
ocial cientists
egan
o
admitwhat
pragmatistsnd suchpractitionersftheGeisteswissenschaftenhuman ciences) s
Wilhelm
Dilthey
ad
known ince henineteenth
entury:
ecausehuman
xperi-
ence s
meaningful, nderstanding
ot
only xpression
ut
also
behavior
equires
interpreting
he
omplex
nd
shiftingystems
f
ymbolshrough
hich ndividuals
encounter he world and with which
theytry
o
cope
with
t.
Meanings
nd
intentionshange ver ime nd across ultures;s thatrealizationpread,hopes
of
finding
universal
ogic
or a
general
cience
f
social
organization
aded.
In
their
lace emergedhermeneutics,
hich elies
n methods
f
interpretation
o
achieve
nderstanding
f
historical
xperience
nd
forgoes
fforts
o
generate
ules
of
transhistorical
uman
behavior.
13
George
Cotkin, Middle-Ground
ragmatists:he Popularization
f Philosophyn American
ulture,"
Journal ftheHistory f deas,
55 (April1994),
283-302. On Will Durant, eeJoan helley ubin,The
Making
of Middlebrow
ulture
Chapel
Hill, 1992).
14
See
RichardWightman
ox, ReinholdNiebuhr:
A
Biography
New York, 1985); and
Daniel
F.
Rice,
ReinholdNiebuhr ndJohn ewey:An American dysseyAlbany, 993).Richard orty,Pragmatismithout
Method," nRichard orty, hilosophical
apers,
vol. I:
Objectivity,
elativism,nd
Truth NewYork, 1991),
64. On
the shift f American hilosophy epartments
way
from ragmatismnd toward nalytic
hilosophy
and logical
positivism,ee Hilary utnam,Reason,
Truth, nd
HistoryNew York, 1981), 103-26;
Bernstein,
"Resurgence
f Pragmatism,"15-17; and a
fine verview, avid Depew, "Philosophy,"
n
Encyclopedia
f the
United
tates n the Twentieth entury,d. Stanley
Kutler
4
vols.,
NewYork, 1996), V, 1635-63.
1I
Thomas . Kuhn, The
StructurefScientificevolutionsChicago,
1962);Paul Hoyningen-Huene,
econ-
structingcientificevolutions:
homas .
Kuhn's
Philosophy
f Science, rans.
Alexander . Levine Chicago,
1993). On theuses of social cience
n
public
policy, ee`EllenHerman,The Romance
fAmerican sychology:
Political
Culture n the Age
of Experts Berkeley, 995).
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Pragmatism:
n Old
Namefor omeNew
Ways fThinking?
109
Marching ehindthe
banner
of hermeneutics
ame an influential
and
of
scholars
ho
challenged
he deal
of
scientific
bjectivity
n
the human
ciences:
PeterWinch,Clifford eertz,CharlesTaylor,Anthony iddens,Paul Ricoeur,
Michel oucault, acques
errida,
Hans-Georg adamer,
ndJUrgen
abermas
a
new
itany f aints roclaiming
ariationsn a revolutionary
ospel
f nterpreta-
tion.They poke different
anguage
han idthose
atural cientists,
hilosophers,
and social
cientists ho ought
oescapetheclutter
fhistory.nstead
f
timeless
principles
nd truth,
hey
eferredo revolutionary
aradigmhifts,
ncommensura-
ble
forms f
life,
he
complexities
f thick escription,ompeting
ommunities
ofdiscourse,rchaeologies
f
knowledge,
heuniversalndecidability
ftexts,he
inescapability
f
prejudices,
ndthecolonization
f ifeworlds y n
omnivorous
technostructure.
6
Although mong
hese hinkers
nlyHabermas
xplicitly
lacedhimself ithin
the
pragmatic
radition,
mericans amiliar
withJames
nd Deweynoted
the
similarities
etween
ecent istoricist
ritiques
f
the
sciences nd social
sciences
and
those
f the
early
ragmatists.
s
thework
f these
hinkers,
any
fwhom
were
ften
rouped
ogetherunhelpfully
nd
even
misleadingly)
nder
he
rubric
"postmodernist,"
ecame
ncreasingly
nfluential, any
cholars egan
to move
away
from he
model
of the natural
ciences nd
toward
orms f
analysis
more
congenial
o hermeneuticsnd history,
ost
notably oward ragmatism."7
Despite heundeniable mportancef hose road hangesnAmericanhought,
the
resurgence
f
pragmatism
s largely
ue
to theremarkable
ork
one
by
the
Trojan
horseof
analytic
hilosophy,
ichardRorty.
Rorty's
istoricismas had
suchexplosive
orce
ecause
he attacked he citadel
of
philosophy
romwithin.
Troubling
s was his
insistence hat
philosophy
ould
never ttain
he scientific
status
nalytic
hilosophers
earned or,
ven
more
unnerving
as
Rorty'squally
blunt
udgment
hat
he
grail
f
objective
nowledge
ould
ikewise
ontinue
o
eludethenatural ciences nd
the ocial
ciences.
orty
irst
stablished
is
creden-
tialswithpapersdiscussingtandard opics n theanalyticradition. ut in his
introduction
o
The
Linguistic
urn
1967),
he
suggested
hat he conflicts
ithin
analytic hilosophy
betweenJ.
L. Austin's
rdinary-language
hilosophy
nd
Carnap's ogicalpositivism,
or
example)
were so fundamental
hat
they
ould
not be
resolved, hus ubtly
hallenging
he dea of progress
n
problem
olving
that
nalytic hilosophers
ookfor
granted.'8
Over
the
nextdecade
Rorty
roadened
his focus nd
sharpened
is
critique.
Echoing rguments
ade
byJames
ndDewey
but
presenting
hem
n
thediscourse
of
analytic hilosophy,
e insisted
n
Philosophy
nd
theMirror
f
Nature
1979)
thatproblemsuchas mind-body ualism, hecorrespondenceheoryftruth,
16
See
Richard
. Bernstein,
he Restructuring
f
Social and Political
Theory New
York, 1976);
FredR.
Dallmayr
ndThomas
A. McCarthy,ds.,
Understandingnd Social
nquiry NotreDame, 1977);
and Quentin
Skinner,d.,
The Return f
Grand
Theoryn the
Human Sciences Cambridge,
ng., 1985).
17
On
these hanges
n
philosophy
nd political
heory,eeJohn ajchman
nd CornelWest,
ds., Post-Analytic
PhilosophyNew
York, 1985);
and David Held,
ed., Political
Theory oday Stanford,
991).
18
Richard
orty, d., The
Linguistic
urn:Recent ssays
n Philosophical
Method
Chicago, 1967).
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110
TheJournalfAmericanistory June
996
theories f
knowledge nd theories f anguage, nd
ultimatelyhe entire oncep-
tion f
systematichilosophy
evoted o finding oundationsor bjective nowl-
edgeall rested n misconceptions.e urgedhisfellow hilosopherso move from
epistemologyo hermeneutics"
nd to practice philosophywithoutmirrors,"
embracing
nterpretationnd surrenderinghevainhope that
heirwritings ight
accurately
eflecthe
world s
it
really s. Systematic
hilosophers,uch as John
Locke, mmanuel
Kant, and RudolfCarnap,who sought
science f knowledge
thatwould disclose
bjective ruth, houldgiveway to
"edifying hilosophers,"
such
sJames nd
Dewey,
who
wouldcontributeo the"conversationftheWest"
without
romising esults hilosophy ould never e able to
deliver.Although
othershad
begun
to
offer ariations n this themeof
"historicistndoing," o
use Ian Hacking's hrase or t,Rorty'sssault eemed specially ramatic ecause
it held out no alternative
olutions.19
In
Consequences fPragmatism1982), Rorty efended is
heretical istoricism.
We must admit that "there s
nothingdeep
down
inside us exceptwhat
we
have
put
there
urselves";ur most herished
tandards nd
practices
re
merely
conventions.
cience,Rorty oncluded
withthe
provocative
luntness
hat has
become
his
trademark,
s
only
"one
genre
f
iterature";
ll effortso find
olid,
unchanging nowledge re futile.20
orty
imself
ealized hat herewas ittle
n
these
claims
hatwas
completely
ew. But
because enthusiasm or ciencehad
overshadowed
hehistoricismf
earlier
ragmatists,
nd
because
Anglo-American
philosophers
n
particular ad marcheddown a road marked truth"
nly
to
findJames nd Dewey waiting here
for
them, Rorty's
evival
f
pragmatism
seemed
revolutionary.
Against
ritics ho assailed
him
as a
relativist,orty esponded
hat
he
notion
of
relativismtself ecomes ncoherent henwe
appreciate
he
contingent
tatus
of
all
our
knowledge.
romhis
perspective,
here s
nothing
or
truth" o
be
relative o
except
our
tradition,
ur
purposes,
nd
our
linguistic
onventions.
Whenwehave ome othat ealization,calm cceptancefour ondition ecomes
possible.Whilepragmatism
annot
ffer
bjectivity,
either
oes
t threaten he
survival
f
civilization.
evolutionary
s his
messagewas,Rorty's
ood
was down-
right pbeat.
He
proclaimed ragmatism
the
chief
lory
f
our
country's
ntellec-
tual
tradition"nd notedthat
ames
nd
Dewey, lthough
sking
s
to
surrender
19
Richard orty, hilosophyndthe MirrorfNature
Princeton, 979). See Alan Malachowski,d., Reading
Rorty:
Critical
esponses
o
Philosophy
nd the Mirror
f Nature
Cambridge,Mass., 1990);
and
Herman
.
Saatkamp, d., Rorty nd PragmatismNashville,1995). Ian Hacking, Two Kinds of New Historicism'
or
Philosophers,"n History nd. .
.:
Historieswithin he Human Sciences, d. Ralph Cohen and MichaelS.
Roth Charlottesville,995), 296-318. Thevery sefulwords historicism"nd "historicist"ontinue o baffle
somehistorians,robably ue to
their
lmost ppositemeanings
n the
work f
the
philosopher
f science
Karl
Popper nd n contemporaryritical iscourse. opperused "historicism"o designateand denigrate) ny heory
(such as Marxism) hatpurports o predict
he future ourse f human
events
ccordingoostensiblycientific
laws. Morerecent ommentatorsnderstand istoricisms "the theory hat ocial and cultural henomena re
historicallyeterminednd that each period n history
as its own values that are not directlypplicable o
other
pochs.
n
philosophyhat mplies
hat
philosophical
ssuesfind heir lace, mportance,nd definition
in a specific ulturalmilieu.That s certainly orty'spinion." bid., 298.
20
Rorty, hilosophy nd
the
Mirror f Nature,392;
RichardRorty, onsequences f Pragmatism: ssays,
1972-1980 Minneapolis, 982), xl,
xliii.
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Pragmatism:
n
Old
Name for ome New
Ways
of
Thinking?
111
all commitments
nd
all
communities.
Courtesy ambridgeUniversity
ress.
cth
neurotic
artesian
uest
for
ertainty,
nevertheless
rote,
s Nietzsche
nd
Heidegger
id
not,
"in
a
spirit
f
social
hope.""
Surprisingly,iventhe ardentopposition o dualism thatRortyhareswith
Jines
nd
Dewey,
n
the
oncept
f
experience
e has
substituted
new
dichotomy
Nt
those
James
nd
Dewey
attacked.
Demonstrating
he distance
between
his
viewnd theirs as
become
onsiderably
asier hanks
o the
appearance
f
Rorty's
-
.
_
^
*
*h"
"Dewey
between
Hegel
and Darwin"
1994).
There
Rorty
cknowledges
thedifference
etween
the
historical
ewey
and his
"hypothetical
ewey,"
a
philosopher
ho
would
havebeen "a
pragmatist
ithout
eing
radical
mpiricist,"
without,
n
other
words,
Dewey's
crucial ommitmento
experience.
he
central
&tinction,
orty
ow
concedes,
ies
n
Dewey's and
James's) ontinuing
mphasis
en xperience,hichRortyinds uaintbutunhelpful. e ties t o their urported
belief
n
itpanpsychism,"
wordfor he
supposed ability
f mindsto
commune
with
ther
minds that
Rorty
as resurrected
rom he lexicon
of
James's
ritics
*
poke
fun at those who
consider
xperience
mportant.
According
o
Rorty,
contemporary
hilosophers
tend
to talk
about sentences
lot but to
say
very
21
Rorty,
onsequences f
Pragmatism,viii,
160, 161.
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112
The
JournalfAmerican
istory
June
996
little bout
ideas or
experiences."
ames's
nd
Dewey's
talk about the
relation
between
deas nd experiences,
n
Rorty'sudgment,
runs
ogether
entences
ith
experienceslinguisticntitieswith ntrospectiventities."They"shouldhave
dropped
he
term xperience
ather
han
redefined
t."
"Myalternative
ewey,"
he concludeswistfully,
would have
said,
we can construe
thinking'
s simply
the
use
ofsentences."22
eeing the inguistic
urn
s a
step
forward ather
han
a dead
end,Rorty
ogmatically
efuseso accept ny hilosophy
nwhich
omething
other han
anguage,
namely,
xperience
understood
ot as introspection
ut
as the
ntersectionetween
he conscious
elf nd
the
world
plays
an
important
part.
As
Rorty
ow admits,
ames
nd Dewey
had
a
very
ifferent
onception
f
philosophy,
nd that
difference
ontinues
o
manifest
tself
n
the contrasting
versionsfpragmatismncontemporarycholarship. ivenhistorians'trongom-
mitments
o
referentiality
n writing
istory,
o the
possibility
f
connecting
he
arguments
e construct
o the
iveswe
write bout,
nd
to testing
hose rguments
within
ur
cholarly
ommunity,
he
arly ragmatists'
mphasis
n
experience
ill
remainor
istorians
n attractive
lternative
o
Rorty'sarrow
nterest
n sentences.
Rorty's
move away
from ames
nd
Dewey's
viewof
experience
nd toward
new
cultural
deal
in
which
poets and
novelists
ould
replace
philosophers
irst
became
lear
n his
elegant,
widely
ead
Contingency,
rony,
nd Solidarity
1989).
His shift ascoincided
with he
new endency
f ome
iterary
riticso characterize
themselves
s
pragmatists.
ust
s dissatisfaction
ith
prevailing
rthodoxies
as
sparked
ovel
pproaches
n
philosophy
nd the
social ciences,
o many
tudents
of iterature
ave
deserted
heNew
Criticism
nd
structuralism
nd turned oward
pragmatism.
eversing
he
common
endency,
temming
rom he
writings
f
Randolph
ourne nd
Van Wyck
rooks nd
reaching
ruition
n
Lewis
Mumford's
The
Golden
Day (1925),
to contrast
he pragmatists'
upposedly
ridfetish
with
technique
with he
ranscendentalists'
elebration
f
magination,
ome ritics
ow
invoke
refashioned ragmatism
n
their
onstructions
f a
rich,
home-grown
literaryeritage. orexample,Richard oirier rgues nPoetrynd Pragmatism
(1992)
for continuous
radition
f
"linguistic
kepticism"
unning
romRalph
Waldo
Emerson
hrough
William
James
to
the modernist
oets
Robert
Frost,
Gertrude tein,
Wallace
Stevens,
nd
T. S. Eliot.
Those
poets
share,
ccording
to
Poirier,
a
liberating
nd
creative
uspicion
s to
the
dependability
f words
and
syntax,
specially
s it relates
o
matters
f
belief."23
22
Richard orty,
Dewey
between
Hegeland
Darwin,"
n Modernist
mpulses
n the
Human
Sciences,
870-
1930, ed. Dorothy
Ross Baltimore,
994), 46-68.
In
this essay
Rorty
cknowledges
is debt
to
intellectual
historians
or
demonstrating
he difference
etween
hehistorical
ewey
and his "hypothetical
ersion"
ut
then ontendshatthe deasofDewey'sgeneration o longermakesense.
23
Richard oirier,
oetry
nd Pragmatism
Cambridge,
Mass., 1992),
5.
On
pragmatism
s the
antithesis
of
literaryheory
nd a rationale
or
ritics o focus n recovering
uthors'
ntentions,
ee Steven
Knapp
and
Walter
Benn
Michaels,
Against
Theory,"
ritical nquiry, (Summer
982),
723-42.
For
the claimthat
we
must upplement
ragmatism
ithother
alueorientations
suchas Marxism)
ecause
the
pragmatic
method
"cannot
help us
do
the social
work
f transformation,"
ee FrankLentricchia,
riticism
nd Social
Change
(Chicago,
1983),
4. Stanley
ish argues
hat
we create he meaning
f
texts
whenwe
interpret
hem; rying
o
catchwhat
Fish
means
by
pragmatism
s thus
ike
trying
ocatch fly
with fish
et.
See,
for
xample,
tanley
Fish,
Doing What
Comes
Naturally
Durham,
1989).
On one version
f Fish's
ragmatism,
ee
the
examination
of egaltheory
elow.
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Pragmatism:n
Old Namefor
omeNew
Ways fThinking?
113
Poirier
nlists ames o provide
n American
lternativeo
varieties f post-
structuralism
mported
rom
rance
nd
fashionable mong
contemporaryritics.
Hequotes phrase romJames'shePrinciplesfPsychologyn "the e-instatement
of the
vague
to
its
properplace
in
our
mental
ife" a
phrase
consistent ith
James's
ortrait
f
the
depth
and richness f
mmediate xperience
then
draws
an
etymological
ine
from
vague"
to
"extravagance"
nd then to
"superfluity."
Thistenuous
ink
prompts
im
to
assert hat
for ames,
s for
Emerson,
hinking
involves
unning,
o
that"gains nd losses
of
meaning
re in
a
continuous nd
generativenteraction."
oirier
ompares
he
writings
f
Emerson
ndJameswith
thoseof
Frost, tein,Stevens,
nd
Eliot,
whom
theyresemble
n
theiruse
of
metaphor
nd their
allusivenessnd
elusiveness
f
phrasing."
oirier
haracterizes
James'sanguage s "no less superfluous"'han he anguage f modernistoets,
"subject
o
the same
degree
f
metaphorical
roliferation,
lippage,
nd excess."
James's
anguage
lides
out
of
bounds,
oward he
margin,
ntil t
becomes oose
and
vague."
AlthoughJamesonceded he
imitsmposed n
clarity
y
he
neffable
in
experience
nd theunstable n
anguage, shis classic
he
Varieties
fReligzous
Experience
makes
abundantly
lear,
n his
writings
e
sought
o
move beyond
the
vague,
rather
han
to
revel n
it.24
James
harpened
is
thinkinggainst hehard
dges
f
heworld e
encountered
in
experience,
nd
his
own
writing eflected
is
preoccupation ithclarity nd
precision.
n
a letter o
his former
tudent
Gertrude
tein,written
hortly
efore
his
death,
James
xplained
why
he
had
not
yet
finished
eading
novel he
had
sent
him: "As a rule
reading
ictions
as
hard
forme
as
trying
o
hit a
target y
hurling
eathers
t it.
I
need
resistance
o
cerebrate " ames's
pragmatismlso
reflectsis
awareness
f
the resistanceo
vagueness ffered y the
world
beyond
his
ownfertile
magination.
n
the
bsence
f
ny
resistance"
n
"external
eality,"
writing
an
become
n
exercise
n
creativity-
r
an excuse
for
unrestrainedelf-
indulgence.
ames lso
nsisted
n
respecting
he conventional
eanings
f
words
lestwebecome ungeared"romur ultural raditionndunabletocommunicate
with
ach other.When
critics
lign
his
pragmatism
ith
"linguistickepticism"
that
encourages
reative
mis)readings y "strong oets"
critic
Harold Bloom's
description
f
ritics
ho
nterpret
exts
nconstrained
y
onventional
nderstand-
ings
they depart
rom
ames's
ision.
24
Poirier,oetry nd Pragmatism,
4, 46, 92, 131.CompareJames's wn
cautionary ords bout
anguage,
whichmighteem
to
confirm
oirier's
iew:
Good and
evil
reconciled
n
a
laugh Don't
you
ee the
difference,
don't
you
ee
the dentity?" ames sked.
"By George,nothing
ut
othing
That
sounds ike
nonsense, ut
t
is pure onsense "Jamespublished
heseepigrams, owever, o show how
words hat struck im as
brilliant
whenhewrote hem-undertheinfluence f nitrous xide-dissolved ntomeaninglessnesshen thenitrous
oxidewore ff.n
suchextravagant
anguage,
ames
aid,
"reason nd silliness
nited."
See
WilliamJames,The
Will
to
Believe nd Other
Essays
n
Popular Philosophy1897; Cambridge,
Mass., 1979), 219-20;
see
also
William
James,
The
Principles f Psychology2 vols.,
1890; Cambridge,Mass., 1981), I, 254-55.
For
an
interpretationhat tresseshe
instabilityfJames'swritingsut emphasizes
whatJameshoped to
accomplish
thereby,ee WilliamJosephGavin,William
ames nd
the
Reinstatementf theVague
Philadelphia, 992).
25
William
James to Gertrude tein, May 25, 1910, WilliamJames
Papers
HoughtonLibrary, arvard
University,
ambridge,Mass.).
On
William
James's
etters o his brother
enry
hat
contrast
he
writing
f
fiction
ith
his
own
strugglesgainst
he
"resistance"
f
"facts" nd
the
ideas of "other
philosophers,"
ee
R.
W. B. Lewis,TheJameses:
Family
Narrative
NewYork, 1991), 409-10.
Poirier, oetry nd
Pragmatism,
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114 TheJournalfAmericanistory June 996
Twoofthemost rominentate-twentieth-century
ragmatists,ichardJ. ern-
stein nd Hilary utnam, ave hallenged ersionsfpragmatism,ncluding orty's
and Poirier's, hat emphasize anguage and
dismiss he concept f experience.
Theirwork, ess known utsidephilosophyhan Rorty's,s of particularnterest
to
historians.
or
hree ecades, ince he ppearance
fhisfirst ook,John ewey
(1966), Bernstein as worked o forge inksbetween ecent ontinental uropean
philosophynd theAmericanraditionfpragmatism.n Praxis ndAction 1971),
he traced he
pragmatisthilosophy f ctivity
o tsroots n Aristotle'shilosophy
and
contrasted he promise f that orientation
ith the dangerthat analytic
philosophymight ink nto scholasticismnder he weight f "its own demand
for ver-increasingechnicalmastery." ewey,bycontrast, as alert o "themoral
and
social
consequences"
f
his
ideas, whichdemanded communityf inquiry
devotedto the "sharedvalues of
openness
nd fairness." romthe beginning,
Bernstein's
ragmatism
as
grounded
n
a Deweyan onception f experiencend
its consequences or ocial organization: it is only by mutual criticismhatwe
can
advanceour knowledge nd reconstruction
f humanexperience.
26
The
twin
pillars
f Bernstein's
ragmatism
ave been
a
community
f
inquiry
and social action.
n
The
Restructuringf
Social and Political
Theory 1976),
Bernstein
xposed
he
reductionismf
mainstream
ocial
science
nd
looked for
alternativesnhermeneutics,henomenology,ndHabermas's riticalheory.n
Beyond
Objectivism
nd
Relativism1983),
he identifiedhe "Cartesian
nxiety"
thathad dominated nd
debilitated
modernWestern
hought:
Either here
s
some
support
or
ur
being,
fixed
oundation
or ur
knowledge,
r we cannot
escape the
forces f darkness hat
envelop
us
with
madness,
with ntellectual
and
moral haos."
As an alternative ernstein
nvoked he ideas of
Hans-Georg
Gadamer,
Hannah
Arendt,Habermas,
nd
Rorty, rguing
hat these thinkers
pointed
oward the entral
hemes
f
dialogue, onversation,
ndistorted
ommu-
nication, and]
communal
udgment"
hat become
possible
"when
ndividuals
confrontachother s equalsandparticipants."ernsteindvanced characteristi-
cally eweyan
onclusion
n
the
consequences
fthese deas:we must
im
"toward
the
goal
of
cultivating
he
types
f
dialogical
ommunities"n which
practical
judgment
nd
practical
iscourse become
concretely
mbodied
n
our
everyday
practices,"
hether hose
practices
nvolve
rganizing neighborhood
o build a
playgroundrorganizing group
f tudents
o
nvestigate
historical
ontroversy
and testalternative
nterpretationsgainst
he available
evidence.
Pragmatism,
166-67.For n alternativeiew, eeDavid Bromwich,RecentWork n Literary riticism,"ocial Research, 3
(Autumn1986), 447.
Too often,Bromwich
rites
with
Fredric ameson nd Terry
agleton n mind), critics
who indulge
heir wn mpulses
s readers bliterate
he
past,
minimizing the differentness
f the
past,"
a
consciousnessfwhich
performs
criticalunction." istorical
materialsare not altogether
ractable:
heywill
notdo everything
e
want hem o."When
recountinghanges
n
iterary
riticism,oirier
nderscoresromwich's
point by
shiftingrom he "linguistic
kepticism"
e
endorses
n
theory
o
a
commonsense eliance n shared
meanings
f words.
ee Poirier, oetry nd
Pragmatism,71-93.
26
RichardJ. ernstein,
ohn
Dewey NewYork,1966);
RichardJ. ernstein,
raxis ndAction:Contemporary
Philosophies
f HumanActivity
Philadelphia, 971), 319,
314.
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Pragmatism:
n
Old Namefor
omeNewWays
f
Thinking?
115
for
ernstein,
riginates
n
reflectionn
experience
nd
culminatesn
altered xpe-
rience.27
Putnam stablished imself ycontributingo debates n mathematicalogic
and philosophy f
mind,but
ike
Rorty e has
become
ncreasingly
isenchanted
during he asttwo
decades
withmuchof
whatpassesfor
rofessional
hilosophy
in
the
United
States.
Withoutdenying he
importance f logic,
formal
tudies,
or
semantics,
utnamhas
nevertheless
escribed
uch
work s
"peripheral"
nd
a
reflectionf the
"scientistic
haracterf
ogicalpositivism"
hat ikewise
nfects
much nalytic
hilosophy.
Contemporary
nalytic
metaphysics,"
ewrites
cidly,
"hasno
connection ith
nythingut
he
intuitions'f
handful f
philosophers."
He isequally cornfulfthenihilism esees nDerrida's econstruction.Analytic
philosophers
asically
ee
philosophys a
science,
nly
ess
developed,
aguer nd
newer,while
Derrida
basically
ees
philosophy
s
literature,
s
art. don't think
either s
correct."
utnam
nterpretsorty's
ccasional
xpressionsf
enthusiasm
for
Derrida s the
ingering ffectsf
Rorty's
isappointment ith he
failure f
analytic
hilosophy
o
deliver
he
certainty
t
promised.28
In
Realism
with Human
Face 1990),
Putnam
ought o
clarifyis
differences
from orty y
isting
ive rinciples
hat
he-along with
he early
ragmatists-
endorses, ut that
he
expected
Rortyo reject.
First,
ur
standards f
warranted
assertibilityrehistorical;econd, hey eflectur nterestsndvalues;andthird,
they
re
always
ubject
o
reform,
s
are all our
standards.
orty ccepted
hose
but
hallenged
utnam's wo
ther
rinciples:
irst,
hat
in
ordinary
ircumstances,
there
s
usually
factof the
matter s to
whether he
statements
eople
make
are
warrantedr
not"; and
second,
"whether
statements
warranted
r
not s
independent
f
whetherhe
majority
fone's
ultural
eers
would
ay
t
s
warranted
or
unwarranted."rom
Rorty's
erspective,
arrant
s
a
sociological
uestion,
o
we should evade
pointless
ebates bout relativism
y
moving
everything
ver
from
pistemologynd
metaphysicso cultural
olitics,
rom laims
o
knowledge
and appealsto self-evidenceo suggestionsbout whatwe shouldtry." hisway
of
framing
he
ssue llustrates
orty's
haracteristic
tyle
f
argument,
hichhe
candidly
escribes s
trying
o
make his
opponent
ook
bad. When
Rorty
races
this
disagreement
o Putnam's
urported
appeals
to
self-evidence,"
e
does
ust
that:Putnam's
ormulation,owever,
oes not
depend
on
self-evidence
ny
more
thanJames's
r
Dewey's
deas of
experience
epended
on
"introspection";
t de-
pends
nstead n evidence
erived rom
xperience.29
Their
econd
rincipal
ifference,orty oints
ut,
tems rom
utnam's dislike
of,
nd
my
nthusiasm
or, picture
f
human
eings
s
ust
omplicated
nimals."
27
Bernstein, estructuringf
Social and
PoliticalTheory;Richard .
Bernstein, eyond
Objectivism
nd
Relativism:
cience,
Hermeneutics,
nd Praxis
Philadelphia,
983), 18, 223.
28
Putnam,Reason,
Truth, nd
History, 26; Hilary
Putnam,Renewing
hilosophy
Cambridge,Mass.,
1992), 197;
interview ithPutnam n
GiovannaBorradori,
he American
hilosopher,rans.
RosannaCrocitto
(Chicago,
1994), 60-61, 66.
29
Hilary utnam,Realismwith
Human Face Cambridge,
Mass.,1990), 21;
Richard orty,
Putnam nd
the Relativist
enace,"Journal
f
Philosophy, 0 (Sept.
1993), 449, 457.
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116 TheJournalfAmerican istory
June 996
Putnam has argued that
"one of our fundamental
elf-conceptualizations"s
humans
is
that
we are
thinkers,
nd
that s thinkers
e are committedo there
beingsome kindof truth." n Putnam'swords, thatmeans that there s no
eliminating
he normative,"nd Rortys correct o emphasize
he gulfdividing
him
from utnam n this ssue. Putnam oncedes he
historicistoint thatour
ways f using anguage hange,but
he
insists hat ven
o,
"some f
our entences
are
true,
nd-in
spite
of
Rorty'sbjections
o
saying
hat
hings
make'
entences
truethe
truth
f I
had cereal
for
breakfast
hismorning' oes depend on what
happenedthismorning."30
This conclusion,
hichmanyhistorians illfind ongenial, ependsfinally n
Putnam'sJamesianonception fwhat t s to be human
nd his conviction, hich
he has reiteratedgain and again during he last fifteen ears, hatwe should
characterizehemind s "neither material or n immaterialrganbut a system
of
capacities,"
hich eturnss to the
arly ragmatists'
heory
f
voluntary
ction.
In
two essayswritten ith
Ruth Anna Putnam, utnam tresseshe "continuing
interactive atureof experience"
s Dewey conceived
f it. Thinking nvolves
relating
ur hoices
nd
our
ctions o
their
onsequences,
hich
equires eflecting
not merely n
our
words ut
on the
experienced
ffectsf
our
practical ctivity.
"We
formulatends-in-view
n the
basis
of
experience,"
hey onclude,
and
we
appraise
hese
on the
basis
of
additional
xperience."
or a
pragmatist,
o
be
engagednthatpractices"tobe committedo the existenceftruth. emocracy
is a social condition f suchpractice, nd therein
ies its ustification."31
For Putnam, s
forBernstein,ll inquiry resupposes alues
such as mutual
understanding
nd
cooperation,
hich
n
turn
equire
ree
nd
open exchanges
of deas
among quals
who
are
committed
o thevalue
of the
practice.
ll of
these
are
deeply, rreducibly
ormative
otions,
nd
they equire conception
fhuman
thinking
nd
agency
different
rom
Rorty's
iew. At
the conclusion f
Reason,
Truth,
nd
History1981),
Putnam tated his rucial
rgument learly
nd force-
fully: The notionof truthtselfdependsfor tscontent n our standards f
rational
cceptability,
nd
these
n
turn
est n
and
presuppose
ur
values."32
Rorty's ualisms
annot accommodate
he
earlypragmatists'onception
f
artistic
r
religious xperience.
orty
hares
ewey's
onception
f
the
iberating
socialvalue
of
art,
which
ngages
he
magination ydestabilizing
he established
order
nd
suggestingmagined
lternatives.
ut
for
Dewey,
s
forJames,
esthetic
30
Rorty, Putnam
nd the Relativist
enace,"458; Hilary utnam, Why Reason
Can't Be Naturalized,"
in HilaryPutnam,
Philosophical apers,
vol. III: Realism nd Reason New
York, 1983), 229-47. See also
Richard orty,Putnam
n Truth," hilosophynd Phenomenological
esearch, 2 (June 1992), 415-18;
and
HilaryPutnam, Truth,Activation ectors, nd Possessive onditions or Concepts," bid., 431-47. Hilary
Putnam,
The
Question
f
Realism,"
n
Hilary utnam,
Words
nd Life,
d.
James
onant Cambridge,Mass.,
1994), 299-302.
31
Putnam,
Question f Realism," 05, 292n6. On the
early ragmatists'heory
f
voluntaryction
nd its
relation o their onception
f
truth,
ee JamesT. Kloppenberg,Uncertain
ictory:
ocial Democracy nd
Progressivismn
European nd American hought, 870-1920
New York, 1986), 79-94. Hilary utnam
nd
Ruth Anna Putnam, Education
orDemocracy,"
n
Putnam,
Words
nd Life,
ed. Conant, 227; and
Hilary
Putnam nd
Ruth
Anna Putnam,
Dewey's ogic: Epistemology
s
Hypothesis,"
bid.,
218.
32
Putnam,Reason,
Truth, nd History,
15. For a recent estatementf this
argument, ee Putnam,
"Pragmatismnd MoralObjectivity,"
n
Putnam, Words
nd Life, d. Conant,151-81.
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Pragmatism:n Old
Namefor omeNewWays f
Thinking? 117
and
religiousxperiences
f
the ort
ewey haracterizeds
"consummatory"
erive
their xplosive
ower rom ualities
hat an render hem
finallynexpressiblen
language.Rorty dmits he importance f such fulfillingxperiences-for im
they
ome
fromrt, iterature,r
the wild
orchids hathavefascinated im
since
his
childhood
but he denies
that such private njoyments
ave anythingo
do with
philosophy.33ames
nd Dewey disagreed, nd the
disagreement as
important
mplications.
Dewey's
aesthetics iffered
rom he abstract nd formal
heories f analytic
philosophers
nd New Critics.
He
emphasized
esthetic
xperience ather han
the
objects
f art. He deplored he
compartmentalization
hatcutsartoff rom
the rest f
existence,
nd
he
denied
the
authority
f
elites o define
nd control
what asses or rt.AsRichard hustermanrguesnPragmatistesthetics1992),
Dewey opposed
the
idea that all artistic
xperience equires nterpretation
y
trained rofessionals.uch
linguistic
niversalism,
hich
husterman
ccurately
describes
s "the
deepest ogma
f he
inguistic
urn
n
both
nalytic
nd continen-
tal
philosophy,"
e
udges
"neither
elf-evidentor mmune o
challenge."
Resur-
recting
he deas
of
James
nd Dewey,Shustermannsists hat
pragmatismmore
radically
ecognizes ninterpretedeality,
xperience, nd understandingss
al-
readyperspectival, rejudiced,
nd corrigible
in
short, s
non-foundationally
given."He recommends ermeneuticsoruse only n particularircumstances.
Shusterman
nsists hat
nderstanding
oes not
always require inguistic
rticula-
tion;
a
proper
eaction,
shudder r a
tingle,
may
be
enough
to
indicate hat
one has understood.
ome
of
the
things
we
experience
nd understand"
notably
aesthetic
nd
somatic
xperiences
"are
never
aptured
n
language."34
Rorty,
ocked
nside he ight
oundaries ftextualism,
ppreciatesuchnondis-
cursive
xperience
utdenies
t
anyphilosophical
ignificance.ewey,by
contrast,
wrote hat a
universe
f
experience
s
a
precondition
f a universe f discourse.
Without
ts
controlling resence,
here s no
way
to
determine he
relevancy,
weight, r coherence f any designated istinctionrrelation.The universe f
experience
urroundsnd
regulates
he universe f
discourse
ut
never
ppears
s
suchwithin
he
atter.
5
Linguistic
ragmatists
uch
s
Rorty
nd
other
ontempo-
rary
hinkers ho
privilege
anguage
and distrust
xperience
ot
only disagree
with
Dewey
but also
thereby
ismiss
muchofwhat
historiansalue
n
their fforts
to understand he
past
as
it
was
lived.
In
James's ntroductiono
the
ectures
ventuallyublished
s The
Varieties
f
Religious
xperience,
e
urged
his istenersothink
bout
speciallyich, owerful,
`
See
Richard
orty, Trotsky
nd
the
Wild
Orchids,"
Common
Knowledge,
1
(Winter 992), 140-53.
34 Richard husterman,ragmatist esthetics: iving eauty,
Rethinking rt Oxford, ng., 1992),
22, 32,
62, 76, 120-34. See
also David R. Hiley,James . Bohman, nd Richard husterman,ds., The
Interpretive
Turn:
hilosophy,
cience,Culture Ithaca,1991). On thedifferenceetween ineteenth-nd
twentieth-century
hermeneutics,nd the
reasons hy istorianshould ecoverhe ormer,eeMichael rmarth,TheTransformation
of
Hermeneutics:9th-Centuryncients nd 20th-Century
oderns,"Monist,
4
(April 1981), 176-94.
John
Dewey,
Logic: The Theory f nquiry 1938),
in
Dewey,
Later
Works, d. Boydston, II,
74. See
also
the
thoughtfuliscussion
n
Richard husterman,Deweyon
Experience: oundation
r
Reconstruction?,"
Philosophical orum,
6 (Winter1994), 127-48.
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118
TheJournalfAmericanistory
June 996
and
sometimes
nforgettablexperienceshat e
describeds "entirely
nparalleled
by anything
n verbal
hought."
Giles
Gunn,
in his
finebook
Thinking
cross
theAmertcan rain 1992), quotes at length passage that xpresses muchof
the heritage f
pragmatismhatRorty as foundproblematic." he
meaning f
such
ntense xperiences,
n
James'swords,
seems o well up from ut
of their
very entre,
n
a
way mpossible erballyo
describe." n
reflection
James
bserved,
our experience
f
every
moment f life
eemsto
expand
n
the
waya revolving
disk
painted
with a
spiralpattern ppears at once to grow ontinuously
rom
within
tself nd
yet
o remain he
same size. Such "self-sustaining
n
the
midst
of
self-removal,hich haracterizesll
reality nd fact, s something
bsolutely
foreign
o the
nature f language, nd even
to the nature f logic, commonly
so-called," hich xplainsJames'sversiono the merginghilosophicalbsessions
with
anguage
and mathematical
ogic
and his
stubborn
ascination
ith
reli-
gious experience.
Something
orever
xceeds,scapes
rom
tatement,
ithdrawsrom
efinition,
must e
glimpsed
nd
felt,
ot
told.No
one
knows his
ike
your enuine
professorfphilosophy.orwhat limmers
nd twinklesike bird'swing
n
the unshinet is his
business
o
snatch nd
fix.
And
every
ime
e
fires is
volley
f
new
vocables
ut
ofhis
philosophic
hot-gun,
hateverurface-flush
of uccess emay eel,hesecretlyens t the ame ime hefiner ollowness
and rrelevance.
Whereas
philosophers
ho have made the
inguistic
urn
might
coff t
James's
insistence n the inadequacies f language o
capture nd pin down
the
magic
of
experience,
istorians ave
good
reasons o
pay
attention.36
Indeed,for
istorianshegreateremptation
aybe
to treat
xperience
ncriti-
cally, s a court
f
ast
ppeal, slighting
he roleof
anguage
nd communication.
Despite
the
incapacity
f
languageto encompass ully he realms f
religious,
aesthetic,
motional,
nd
somatic
xperience,
e nevertheless
sually
have access
to the experience f otherpersons, nd communicateur own experienceo
others,
rincipallyhroughanguage.Although
ived
experiencemay
exceed
he
boundaries
f
discourse,
ur
expression
f it
usually,
nd
our
discussion
f it
always,
annot.
Moreover, xtralinguisticxperiences
ave mostoften
been
used
to authorize he
dogmatic
ssertions f
foundational
rinciples
hat
pragmatists
old and new distrust.
raditionally
ppearing
s
religious
ruths
roclaimed
y
believers,
more
recently
uch
foundational
rinciples
ave
been
asserted
y
those
who laim hat heir
ace, lass, ender,
r
other
haracteristic
ives
hem mmediate
experiencendthusnsightsnaccessible,erhaps ven ncomprehensible,o those
outsidethe
charmed-or
maligned-circle.37
ow do
we assess
nd
adjudicate
such
ompeting
laims, rounded
n
appeals
to
experience?
he
early ragmatists'
36
Giles
Gunn, Thinkingcross
he
AmericanGrain: deology, ntellect,
nd the
New Pragmatism
Chicago,
1992), 112-13. ForJames's raft f theopening f his Giffordecturesn Edinburgh, he basisfor
The Varieties
of Religious xperience,ee Perry, hought nd Character
f William ames, I, 328-29.
31
For an incisive iscussion rom n
implicitly ragmatisterspective,ee David A. Hollinger,
ostethnic
America:BeyondMulticulturalismNew
York, 1995).
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Pragmatism:n Old Namefor omeNewWays fThinking?
119
concept
f truth s crucialnot only because t acknowledgeshose appeals but
because,
n itsethical nd
political
imensions,
t offers
method
or
valuating
such claims. t thusprovides way of attemptingo negotiate ifferenceshat
might therwiseeem rreconcilable.hat pragmaticmethod s democracy.
Ethics nd Politics
Forboth ames nd Deweydemocracy
asmuchmore han form
fgovernment
or a
set
of
legal arrangements.
ewey urgedus to stop "thinking
f democracy
as somethingnstitutionalnd external"nd to see it as
"a
way
of
personal ife,"
to realizethat
"democracy
s a moral deal and so far s it becomes fact s a
moral act."nJames's ords,democracys a kind freligion,"ndfor ragmatic
reasons we are bound not to admit tsfailure." uch "faiths nd utopias
re the
noblest xercise
fhuman
reason," nd we must
not
urrenderhem
o cynicism.38
James nd Deweyconsidered
heir
ragmatismnseparable
rom heir ommit-
ment to
democracy
s
an
ethical deal.
Both
believed that
their
hallenge o
inherited hilosophical
ualisms
nd absolutes,
heir
onception
f
truth
s fluid
and
culturallyreated,
nd
their
belief
that all
experience
s
meaningful
ere
consistent
nly
with
democracy,
pecifically
ith he
principles
f
social
equality
and ndividual utonomy. he dealsofequality nd autonomyppealedtoJames
and
Dewey because
of
their
pen-endedness
nd flexibility.hey did not entail
particularonceptions
f the
good
lifefor ll
people
at all
times,
lthough hey
did
rule
out
fixed nd
hierarchicalocial
ystems
ustained
y ppeals
to
allegedly
universal
ruths hat ll
members
f the
society
must
mbrace.
For ppeals o universalruths,ames nd Dewey ubstitutedprocess
f nquiry
thatwas
both democratic
nd scientific.
ewey's
nthusiasm or cience s often
misinterpreted
s a narrow oncernwith
technique
o
the
exclusion f ethical
considerations;
o the
contrary,
ewey
valued
the scientific ethod
because
t
embodied n ethical ommitmentoopen-ended nquirywherein umanvalues
shaped
he election f
uestions,
he ormulationf
hypotheses,
nd
the
valuation
of
results.
ewey
conceived
f the
deal
scientific
ommunity
s
a
democratically
organized, ruth-seekingroup
of
independent
hinkers ho tested
heir esults
againstpragmatic tandards, ut
those tandards
lways eflected
moral,
rather
than
narrowlyechnical,
onsiderations.
This
unifying
hread
onnects
ll
of
Dewey'swritings.
n
The
Study f
Ethics
(1894),
he insisted hat
knowing
annot e separated
rom
aluing.
he
qualitative
and
social imensionsf
xperience
ake
ure objectivity"
r
neutrality"mpossi-
ble forhumanbeings. n The Publicand Its Problemshe cautioned hat "the
glorification
f
'pure'
science"
s
but
"a
rationalization
f
an
escape"
because
knowledge
is
wholly
moralmatter."
n
Experience
nd
Nature
he stressed he
moral nd aesthetic imension
f
experience,
ts
qualitative
s well
as
cognitive
38John
Dewey, "Creative emocracy-The Task beforeUs," in Dewey,Later Works, d. Boydston, IV,
228; William ames,The Social Value ofthe CollegeBred, n William ames,Writings,902-1910,ed. Bruce
Kuklick New York, 1987), 1245.
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120
TheJournal
f
American
History June
1996
a _ . .. m
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hesw deOrac asa:tia da
xedn
..~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J1
.*r .....
S :.>j
l~~~~~ ~n
soia interaction.
aspect.eInyArt
91d
roece
1934)
Dewey
tre
once
mewto
clarify
he
position
hedefndedtroughoutis
roidsarer hltsohiafoughdcampionssr
wellcrascriic.hv
interpetednturalim asndisregardsofll valuesthacanotbereucdich
i~~~~~~n
soia
ntracio.
.
physical
nd
animal,"
for
Dewey
"nature
ignifies
othing
ess than the
whole
complex
f the results f the nteractionf
man,
with
his memories
nd
hopes,
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Pragmatism:n Old Name
for omeNew
Ways fThinking?
121
understanding
nd
desire,
with
hat
world
o
which
ne-sided
hilosophy
onfines
'nature."
9
Dewey
udged the notionof
"value-free"nquiry bhorrents
well
as incoherent.
An
address
Dewey wrote or
banquet
celebrating
is
eightieth irthdayn
1939 tates
learlynd
conciselyhe onnection etween is
devotion o
democracy
and
his
philosophical
onceptions
f
experience
nd ethics.
Democracy,
ewey
proclaimed,s "a way f ife"
hat equires faith
n
the
capacity f
humanbeings
for
ntelligentudgment nd action f
proper that
s,
democratic]onditions re
furnished." o thosewho
udged this aithnaiveor
utopian,Dewey nsisted
hat
itderives either rom
metaphysicsor rom ishful
hinkingutfrom
he veryday
experience
f
neighbors
nd friends
athering
to
converse
reely
ith
ne
another.
Intolerance,buse, alling fnames ecause fdifferencesfopinion boutreligion
or
politics
r
business,
s well
as because
of differencesf
race,
color,
wealth
r
degree
f
culture re treason o the democratic
ay
of ife."
Anything
hat
blocks
communication
ngendersantagonistic
ects ndfactions"
nd
undermines
emoc-
racy.Legal guarantees the focus f
late-twentieth-century
fforts
o assure he
right o
free
xpression
are
inadequate
when the
give
nd take
of
deas,
facts,
experiences,
s
choked
by
mutual
uspicion, y abuse, by
fear
nd hatred."
For
Dewey
emocracyequired
more han
ecuring
ndividual
ights.
t
required
aith
n
thepossibilityfresolvingisputes hroughncoercedeliberation,ascooperative
undertakings,"
nsteadof
having
one
party uppress
he
other
overtly hrough
violence
r
more
ubtly hrough
idicule r
intimidation.
f
such
cooperation
s
impossible,
hen
deliberative
emocracy
s
Dewey
onceived
f
t s
impossible.40
The
emphasis
n difference
n
the
ontemporary
nited tates oes
notdiscredit
Dewey's
pragmatism,
s
some writers nfamiliar ith
his
ideas
assume; nstead
it echoes
Dewey's
wn
view
of
diversity. chieving
he
cooperation ecessary
or
social
ife
requiresgiving
ifferences
chance o show
hemselves,"
e
insisted.
"The
expression
f
difference
s
not
only
a
right
f the other
persons
but
is
a
means fenrichingne's own ife-experience."ewey's onceptionfdemocracy
involved
nriching
he
range
f
choices,
nd
expanding
he
possibilities
f
finding
differentinds f
fulfillment,
or ll
persons.
emocracy
oesnot
mpose uthority
from
bove
but relies nstead n
"the
process
f
experience
s end
and as
means,"
as
the ource f
uthority
nd the
means f
choosing
mong
nd
testing
lternative
directions.
his
process
s
continuous ecause
ts
terminus
annot
be
designated,
or even
magined,
n
advanceof democraticocial
experimentation
o
create a
freernd morehumane
xperience
n
which ll share nd to which
ll
contribute."
Dewey
harbored
o secret esire o
bring
ll
diversity
o an end
under
he
shelter
of a snugbutstiflingonsensus: o thecontrary,democracy ithout ifference
wasa contradiction
n
terms,
ecause
he
believed
assionately
hat
ll
individuals,
39
John
Dewey, The Study fEthics:
A
Syllabus,
n
JohnDewey,
The
EarlyWorks, 882-1898, d. Jo Ann
Boydston5 vols.,Carbondale, 967-1972), V,339; Dewey,
ublic ndIts
Problems, 44-45; Dewey,
xperience
and Nature, 4-76; and JohnDewey,
Art
s
Experience,
n
Dewey,
Later
Works, d. Boydston, , 156.
40
Dewey, Creative emocracy-TheTask before
Us," 224-30, esp.
226-28.
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122
TheJournalfAmericanistory
June 996
in their niqueness,make
differentontributions
o democraticife.
The richer
the mix,
the richer he culture hatresults rom
he
nteraction.4'
Dewey's ommitmentopluralismnd diversity,otherecognitionnd cultiva-
tion f
difference,
nd
to the
potential
fcommunication
o engenderooperation
and clarify,
f not
resolve, isputes
llustrates
ow
wrongheaded
s
the familiar
charge,
which
Dewey explicitly
nd
repeatedly enied,
that
his
emphasis
n
a
community
f
inquiry
eveals
he atent
litism f
pragmatism.
hroughout
he
1920s, gainst
ehavioristsnd empirical
ocial cientists ho nvoked
ispragma-
tism n behalf
f their ffortst social ngineering,
e insisted n
expanding
he
"communityf cooperative
ffortnd truth."
n
Individualism ld and New
(1929) he
elaborated he argument dvanced
n
The
Public and Its Problems
concerninghefolly frelyingn elites.He admitted hat omecommunitiesf
scientists,
small
roups
aving
somewhat
echnical
bility,"
id ndeed llustrate
how the process
f inquirymightwork,
yethe insisted hat such
groups eveal
only
a
possibility
n the
present
one of
manypossibilities
hat
re
a
challenge
to
expansion,
nd
not a
ground
for retreat
nd contraction"rom
democracy.
Unfortunately,nterpreters
f
Dewey's
deas sometimes
gnore
uch
explicit rgu-
ments nd
assert hat heremustbe something
ntidemocraticbout
communities
of
nquiry,
ven hose
hat
re
open,
expanding,
nd
democratically
onstituted.42
Althoughthas ongbeencommon o contrastJames'sndividualismoDewey's
commitment
o social
ction,
heir ifferences
re
subtler.
hey
reflect
n
part
he
simple
factof James's
eath
n
1910
and
Dewey'sgrowing
nvolvement
n
the
distinctive
olitical
ontroversies
f the
following
our
decades,
rather han
any
fundamental
nconsistency
n
their
olitical
rientations.
oth
conceived f ived
experiences
irreducibly
ocial
and
meaning-laden;
oth
frequently
nvoked e-
mocracy
s the ocial deal consistent
ith heir ragmatism.
ames ttributedhe
"unhealthiness"
f
labor
relations,
or
xample,
o "thefact hatone-half f our
fellow-countrymen
emain
ntirely
lind
to the nternal
ignificance
f the ives
of the otherhalf." Instead of entering maginativelynto theirwaysof life-
to
say
nothing
f
entering
nto
constructive,
emocratic
ialogue
with
them-
"everybody
emains
utsideof
everybody
lse's
sight."
n
addition o
endorsing
deliberative,
r
discursive,emocracy-
efined
y
he reative
otential
f
galitar-
ian
dialogue,
not
merely
emocratic
nstitutions
r
universal
ights
o
participate
in
political
ctivity
James lso
championed
hat
wouldnow
be
designated
multi-
culturalism.
is
ideal
of
a
democratic
ulture, rounded
n
his
conception
f
41
Ibid., 228-30. On thisdimension
f
Dewey's
pragmatism,ee also Hilary utnam,
A Reconsideration
of DeweyanDemocracy,"nPragmatismnLaw and Society, d. MichaelBrint nd WilliamWeaver Boulder,
1991), 217-43. On the mportance
f pluralism o pragmatism,
eealsoPutnam,Words nd
Life, d. Conant,
194-95.
42
John
Dewey, ndividualism
ld andNew,
n
Dewey,
ater
Works,
d. Boydston, , 115. The assumption
thatknowledgenevitably
asks nd imposes ower ften nderlies
uch charges f elitism. rom Deweyan
perspectivene might oncede he
point and ask what lternatives preferable
o stipulating
hatdemocratic
principleshould hape
the
process
f nquiry nd
theformationf those ommunitieshat
valuateknowledge
claims. articularly
or
cholars,
herefusal o
admit
hat here
re
better nd worse-more nd essdemocratic-
ways o generate
nowledge
s
self-defeating.
ee
the
udicious
reviewssay:ThomasBender, Social Science,
Objectivity,
nd
Pragmatism,"
nnals
of
Scholarship,
(Winter-Spring992), 183-97.
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Pragmatism:
n Old Namefor ome
NewWays fThinking? 123
immediate xperiencend his commitmento
pragmatism,commands
s to
tolerate, espect, nd
indulge"those "harmlesslynterestednd happy
n their
ownways, owever nintelligiblehesemaybe to us." His creedwas "Handsoff:
neither hewhole ftruth
or hewhole fgood s revealed o any ingle bserver."
The political onsequence fJames's ragmatism
as "thewell-knownemocratic
respect or the sacredness f individuality,"he
"tolerance f whatever
s not
itself ntolerant."43
The early ragmatists'rguments ordemocracy
elped nspire enerations
f
social ndpolitical ctivistsanging
rom
rogressive
eformershrough ewDealers
to members
f the
civil rights
movement
nd
the New Left.
In
the
debates
thatrage mongcontemporary
hinkersoncerning
he
political onsequencesf
pragmatism,hedemocraticonvictionsfJames nd Deweyhave slippedout of
focus ecause hepolitical deasof inguisticragmatists
uch s Rorty ave ttracted
so
much ttention. ecauseRorty'sersion f iberalism
ppeals omanyAmericans
disillusioned
ith
olitics
r
cynicalbout
ts
prospects,
t s
important
o
be
clear
about
the imilarities
nd the
differences
etween
is
deas and those f the
early
pragmatists. orty
as
repeatedly
haracterized
he culture
nd institutions
f
liberaldemocracy
s a precious
chievement
nd
endorsed he
social-democratic
program
hathas
been
at the
heart f
pragmatic
olitical
ctivism ince he days
ofJames nd
Dewey,
or
Rauschenbusch
nd
Croly.But,
unlikeJames
nd Dewey,
he
denies hat
pragmatism
rovides nyphilosophical
oundation or uch
poli-
tics
or that we
need
one.
Rorty everthelessharacterizesragmatism
s "a philosophy
f
olidarityather
than
despair."
He tries o reassure
is
readers
hatwe need
not
discard
ur
beliefs
about
the
natural
world,
r our moral nd
political
alues, ust
because
we realize
we
havemade
them,
ather
hanfound hem.Our faith
n
science,
ike
our other
faiths, elps
us
get things one,
and
it
will
continue o
help
us even after
we
have
topped rying
o
"divinize"
t likewise our
democratic
aith.
n
the
bsence
offoundations, orty ecommendshatwe look instead o history-but romn
idiosyncratic,
ven
antihistorical
antage oint.
We
must
ccept
our
nheritance
from,
nd
our
conversation
ith,
ur fellow-humans
s our
only
ource
f
guid-
ance."
This s our
defense
gainst
he
nihilism
hat hose
who
believe
n
universal
principles
earwillfollow
rom
ragmatism.
Our dentification
ith urcommu-
13
William
James,
Talks o Teachers
n Psychology;nd to Students
n Some of Life's deals
(1899; New
York,
1958),
188-89,
169, 19-20. On James's
ragic ensibility
nd Dewey's ndomitable emocraticaith,
ee
Kloppenberg,
ncertain ictory,
15-95,
340-415. OnJames's olitics,
f. hecontrastingmphases f
Deborah
J. Coon,
"'One
Moment n the
World's
alvation':Anarchismnd
theRadicalization
fWilliam
ames,
Journal
ofAmerican istory,3 (June 1996),70-99;and GeorgeCotkin,William
ames:
PublicPhilosopherBaltimore,
1990).
On Dewey'sdemocratic
deas,cf.Westbrook,ohn
Dewey and
American emocracy; nd Alan
Ryan,
John
Dewey
nd the
High
Tide
of
American iberalism
New
York,
1995).
For the
ong-standard
iewof
the
differences
etween ames's nd Dewey's outlooks,
ee
James
Campbell,
The
Community econstructs:
he
Meaning
fPragmaticocial Thought
Urbana,
1992). For riticismf
Dewey,GeorgeHerbert
Mead, andJames
Tufts or ryingo
moderate lass
onflictndto translateheir
rotestantismnd republicanism
nto reformism
supposedly
ll uited o the ndustrialra,
ee Andrew
effer,
he Chicago ragmatists
ndAmerican
rogressivism
(Ithaca,
1993).
An imaginativenalysis
hat credits ewey and especially
ames
withrealizing hat orporate
capitalism
shered
n
possibilities
or
"postmodern
ubjectivity"
s
JamesLivingston,ragmatism
nd
the
Political conomy f
CulturalRevolution,
850-1940 Chapel
Hill, 1994).
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124
TheJournalfAmericanistory
June
996
nity-our society,
ur political radition,
ur ntellectualeritage-is heightened
when we see thiscommunity
s ours rather han nature's, haped rather
han
found,one amongmanywhichmen have made." If we wereto surrenderur
aspirations
o certainty,
e writes,we "would
regard
he ustificationf liberal
society imply
s a matter f historicalomparison ith
other ttempts
t social
organization." t
first
lancehistorians
ight
indRorty'srgumentntriguing:
He
urges
us to "trynot to
want
something
which tandsbeyondhistory
nd
institutions"ecause
"a
belief
an stillregulate ction"even
if
we realize t
is
"caused by nothing eeperthan contingent
istorical
ircumstances."n Rorty's
"liberal topia,"
the claimthatthere
s "'somethinghat tandsbeyond
history'
has becomeunintelligible."44
Rorty rgesus to discard ttempts o provide hilosophical ropstohold up
our humanitariannd
democratic
alues,
o face
unblinkingly
he contingencyf
our
sense
of self
nd
our commitments,nd
to
adopt
a posture f ronic istance
from
whatever
e now ccept s
our
final ocabulary."
he hero fRorty's
liberal
utopia"
can
"slough
off
he
Enlightenment
ocabulary"
f rational oundations
underlyingniversal
rinciplesnd striveimply o avoid
nflictingain
on others,
a
tabooRorty
imply osits
s
self-evident
o
nyone
whohas nherited
ur
radition.
Having givenup
his own
adolescent
ttempts
o "hold
reality
nd
justice
n
a
singlevision,"
Rorty
as
become
convinced
hat
"an
intricately-textured
ollage
of
private
arcissism
nd
publicpragmatism"
aybe
our
best
hope
for
ynthesizing
love and
justice. We
can no
longer
im
formore than what
Alan
Ryan
calls
"welfare-capitalism-with-a-human
ace,"Rorty
aswritten.
erms uch s
"capital-
ist
economy" nd
"bourgeois
ulture"have
become
meaningless
ince
1989;
in
the
absence
f
anycontrasting
ocialist lternatives,
we
Western
eftists"hould
"banalize
our
vocabulary
f
political
deliberation."
aking
that dviceto
heart,
Rorty
laims
hat
ur
political
eedsboil
down
o
"security"
nd
"sympathy"
r,
s
he
put t,
"mere iceness" o
all "featherless
ipeds."
Such
formulations,
vidently
calculated o nfuriate orty'sarnestritics,odoubtaccount ormuchofhisno-
toriety.45
Rorty ontends hatphilosophy
an
no
longer
ffer
much
guidance
to those
interested
n
ethics nd politics.
For
him
liberal
democratic
ultures
re
simply
"a product
f time
and
chance,"
"an accidental
oincidence,
or "a fortunate
happenstance,"nd
thehistoricalmergence
f he
United tates
was an
admirable
result"
hatoccurred
just by good
luck."
Rorty's
evil-may-care
iewof
history
as
caprice
nd
his
intentionally
anal
ethic
f
"niceness" ontrast
trikingly
ith
James's tance
n
such
essays
s "The Moral
Philosopher
nd
the
MoralLife"
nd
Dewey'shistoricalnalyses f the connections etween heories f ethics nd
Richard orty, Solidarityr Objectivity,"
n
Post-Analytic
hilosophy, d. Rajchman
nd
West,
15-16;
Rorty, onsequences f Pragmatism,
66; Richard orty,
ontingency,rony, nd SolidarityNew York,1989),
xvi, 53, 189-90.
`
Rorty, ontingency,rony, nd Solidarity, 3;
Rorty, Trotskynd the Wild Orchids,"140-53; Rorty,
Philosophical apers, , 210;
Richard orty,The Intellectualst theEnd of Socialism,"
Yale
Review,
0
(April
1992), 1-16; RichardRorty,
Human Rights, ationality,nd Sentimentality,"bid.,
81 (Oct. 1993), 1-20.
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Pragmatism:
n Old Namefor omeNew
Ways fThinking? 125
political rganization, etween
personal esponsibility
nd social ustice.Rorty
claims hat
Dewey's ragmatism
did
not
tellyou
what
purposes
o
have;
tsethics
is situational t best."46 hat could be said generallyf James s well. But as
RobertWestbrookndI argue,Dewey hallenged revailing
ystemsf ethics nd
conventionaliberal nd
socialist olitical heories, ut he neither ndorsed
he
judgment
f
many
nalytic hilosophershatethics nd political hilosophy
re
obsolete
nor
accepted nythingike Rorty's dvice
that urging ympathy
s the
best
we can do.
Jamesand Dewey both believed that demolishing
arlier rguments bout
ethics nd politics leared
he wayforcritical nalysis
f personal reedom nd
responsibility,ather han
bringinguchdiscourse o
an end. As Deweyput t
in
1940, in a statement hat ndicates he gulf separating im fromRorty, any
theory
f
activity
n
social
and moralmatters,iberal r otherwise,
hich
s
not
grounded
n
a
comprehensive
hilosophy, eemsto
me to be only projection
of
rbitraryersonal references.
WhenRorty riteshat wedo notneedphiloso-
phy
for
social criticism" r contends hat "Dewey,
ike Nietzsche, ltered
our
conception f reason . .
in a way hat eavesno room or he dea that emocratic
idealscan be supported y nvoking historicaldemands
f reason,"'he neglects
Dewey's
own
"comprehensivehilosophy."
More accurate
s
Rorty's bservation
of the differenceetween is hypotheticaleweyand the historical ewey,who
caredpassionatelybout
demonstratinghe connection etween xperience nd
the ethical
nd political deal of democracy. istoricizing
eason, projectmany
of James's
nd
Dewey's
ate-twentieth-centurydmirers
hare with
hem,
need
not culminate
n
Rorty's igiddivisions f language
from xperience nd of
the
private
rom he
public
phere, or
n
his dismissal f ethics nd politics
s
proper
subjects
or
philosophers,
or, as
I
will argue
n
myconclusion,
n his
disregard
for
the
careful
nd critical tudyof how and why our tradition
as taken ts
distinctive
hape.Rorty's
osition
s
nsufficientlyragmatic.
lthough e considers
himself partisan f social democratic eformsnd criticizes cademic ultural
politics,
is
liberal
ronism
ncourages elfishness,ynicism,nd resignation
y
undercutting
ffortso confronthe hard facts f
poverty
nd
greed.4
Varieties f
Contemporary
ragmatism
Numerous
ontemporary
hinkers
ave nvoked
ragmatism
o
bolster
wide
range
of
political rguments;
heir
ontributionso debates bout race,gender,
nd law
46
Rorty, ontingency,rony,nd Solidarity,2, 37, 68; Rorty, DeweybetweenHegel and Darwin," 5, 64.
47
John ewey, Nature n
Experience,"
n
Dewey, aterWorks, d. Boydston, IV, 150; Borradori,
merican
Philosopher, rans.Crocitto, 17;
Rorty, Dewey betweenHegel and Darwin,"68. On the contrast
etween
Rorty'sdeas bouthistory,eligion,thics, nd politics nd those fother ragmatists,
eejames
T. Kloppenberg,
"Democracy nd Disenchantment:
romWeber nd Deweyto Habermas nd Rorty,"
n
Modernistmpulses n
the
Human Sciences, d. Ross,69-90; and JamesT. Kloppenberg, Knowledge nd
Belief
n American
ublic
Life," n Knowledge nd Belief:
Enlightenment raditionsnd
Modern
ReligiousThought, d. William M.
Shea and
Peter
A.
Huff
New York,1995), 27-51. On the connection etween ewey's
deas about ethics
nd
his commitmento democracy,eeWestbrook, ohnDewey nd American emocracy. ee also Richard orty,
"Intellectualsn Politics," issent,
38 (Fall 1991), 483-90.
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126
The
Journalf
American istory
June
996
makeclear
howmanydistinct
ersions f
pragmatismre alive
and which ersions
differ
arkedlyrom
he
deas
of
he arly
ragmatists.ornelWesthas
constructed
a loosenarrativeraditiononnectingames ndDeweywithEmerson, u Bois,
and
such
thinkerss C. Wright
Mills,
SidneyHook, and
ReinholdNiebuhr. n
addition o accurately
ssociating
ntifoundationalism
nd democratic
ensibility
with
American ragmatists, est
characterizeshem s
champions f thosewhom
the
theorist f
anticolonialismrantz
anon calls
"the wretched f the earth."
West
distances is
position rom
orty'sragmatism,hich e
udges
oo
narrowly
focused n
language nd
insufficiently
ttuned o the pressing
eed forpolitical
activism. The
distinctive
ppeal of American
ragmatism
n
our
postmodern
moment,"
Westwrites, is ts
unashamedly oral
mphasis
nd itsunequivocally
ameliorativempulse."Althoughackofprecisionnd inattentiono detailmake
West's
TheAmerican
vasion fPhilosophy
roblematic
s a
history
f
philosophy,
it
is a spirited nd
provocative iece of
pragmatic
ultural
riticism.48
An
ardent
dmirer fDewey,
Westnevertheless
rgues hat
Dewey's ragmatism
mustbe
supplemented ith he
tragic nd
religious ensibilities
f Niebuhr "the
vertical
imension"),
he
awareness f class of Karl
Marx nd Antonio
Gramsci,
and
a
sharper
ensitivityo issues
f race nd gender
the
"horizontal
imension")
than
the
early
ragmatists
howed.49n recent ears,
s he has attained
elebrity
status fa sortneitheramesnorDeweyhad toendure,West has become essan
academic
hilosopher
han
"jazz freedom
ighter" hose prophetic
ragmatism"
attemptsotranslate
philosophical erspective
escended
romJames
nd
Dewey,
a
religious wareness f evil
and finitude,
nd a radicaldemocratic
olitics
nto
the
idiomsof
postmodern cademic
discourse, lack
spirituality,
nd
hip-hop.
Rorty as
complained hat
West'sphrase
prophetic ragmatism"
ounds s odd
as
the
phrase
charismaticrash ick up."50
West's
cheerleadingeemspointless
to
Rorty
incehe
believes
wecannotbridge
he gap
between he
rich
ossibilities
available o us
in
private ife
and Dewey's
magined great
ommunity,"
now-
meaningless topia we cannotenvision n the flattened andscapeof welfare
capitalism.
etween he
negative reedoms
ndividualsnjoy
n
a liberal
emocracy
and the
promise f an
evenricher orm f ife
within
more
radically
emocratic
public
sphere-the"positive
reedom"
hat Dewey embraced
n
Liberalism nd
48
Cornel
West,
The
American
vasion f Philosophy: Genealogy f Pragmatism
Madison, 1989),
4.
49
CornelWest, "Politics f
AmericanNeo-Pragmatism,"
n Post-Analytichilosophy,d. Rajchman nd
West,
259-72. On West's ccount f American ragmatismnd
his "prophetic ragmatism,"
ee Kloppenberg,
"Knowledge nd Belief nAmerican ublicLife."Fine tudies f
philosophy,eligion, ndethics rom ragmatist
perspectivesre Henry amuel
Levinson, he Religious
nvestigationsf William ames Chapel Hill, 1981);
and StevenC. Rockefeller,ohnDewey: Religious aith nd Democratic umanism NewYork, 1991). For a
"modest ragmatism"hatdoes
not rely xplicitlyn Deweybut echoesmanyof his
ideas, see Jeffreytout,
Ethics
fter abel: The Languages f Morals nd Their
DiscontentsBoston,1988).
s0
Cornel
West, Race Matters
1993;
New
York, 1994),
150-51.
For
Henry
ouis
GatesJr.'sdescription
f
West as "the
preeminent frican-Americanntellectual f our
time,"
see Jack
E.
White,"Philosopher
ith
Mission,"Time,June 7, 1993, pp.
60-62; for nother enerous ssessmentf West, see
Robert oynton, The
New
ntellectuals," tlanticMonthly, 75 March 995), 53-70.
Compare hepyrotechnicisplay f
ressentiment
by
Leon
Wieseltier,
All
and
Nothing
t
All," New Republic,
March
, 1995, pp. 31-36.
For
responses rom
readers includingRorty), ee
"Decline of CornelWest," bid., April 3, 1995, pp. 6-7.
RichardRorty, eview
of
TheAmerican vasionof
Philosophy y CornelWest,
Transition, 2 (1991), 75-77.
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Pragmatism:n Old
Namefor omeNewWays fThinking? 127
Social Actionfalls a chasm.To Rorty, ur centuryllustrateshe cruelty hat
must esult rom ttemptso force
ommunity here here s conflict. ut to West
(and others rawn oward ewey's deal), it s essential hatpragmatistsontinue
strivingor he democraticransformationf everydayxperience.
Like
West,many eministsndorse ragmatisms an alternativeo the sterility
of
analytic hilosophy nd the
nihilism f post-structuralismnd as a lever o
dislodge ntrenched ays
f
thinking. gainst ueling onceptionsffixed male"
and "female" atures, eminist
ragmatistsnstead all for n open-ended, nti-
essentialist,xperimentalpproach
o gender. n a special ssue of the ournal
Hypatiapublished
n
1993,
CharleneHaddockSeigfried, ho has written
xten-
sively n William ames,has brought ogether orks yhistorians,hilosophers,
andpolitical heoristsxploringhepotential fpragmatismor eminism."5uch
early ragmatistssJames, ewey,
nd GeorgeHerbertMead considered ragma-
tism
weapon
n
thecampaign
gainst estrictiveender oles or he
ame
reason
they onsideredt a weapon n the
campaigns gainst mperialismnd racism
nd
for
emocracy.hey lliedwith eminist
ctivists
nd
championed
eministcholars
such as JessieTaft
because their
onception
f
pragmatism
xtended
beyond
language o an awareness f the experience f people who weredenied choices,
or
unnecessarilyestricted
n
their
hoices, yprevailingssumptionsnd patterns
of socialrelations.52
The pervasivenessf power hatmany ontemporaryeministsmphasizehas
led
some, notably oan Scott, o resist he concept f "experience" ecausethey
fear t can lead us
away fromhistoricism
oward
new foundationalism.
ut
instead
of
dismissing
he
concept s Rorty oes, Scottrecommends xamining
how
experience
s
said to
yieldunassailable
nowledge, strategyesembling
hat
ofJames
nd
Dewey."3Similarly,ther eministsesist
he
deas
of
a
community
of
nquiry
r
a deliberative
emocracy ecause hey ear uch deas valorize
white
"
Charlene addock
eigfried, haos
nd
Context: Study
n
Williamjames
(Athens, hio, 1978);
Charlene
Haddock Seigfried,William ames'sRadical Reconstructionf PhilosophyAlbany, 1990). Seigfried rought
together group
f
essayswith
er
ntroduction,harleneHaddock eigfried,The Missing erspective:
eminist
Pragmatism," ransactionsf the Charles . PeirceSociety, 7 (Fall 1991), 405-74. And see thespecial
ssue
"Feminismnd Pragmatism,"d. Charlene addock eigfried, ypatia, (Spring 993).There reno specifically
pragmatistr feminist octrinesbout philosophical r political ssues, ccording o Richard orty, Feminism,
Ideology, nd Deconstruction: Pragmatist iew," bid., 96-103.
52
The
special ssue "Feminism nd Pragmatism"ontains ssays n the importancef experience or arly
feminist
ragmatists
nd
responses
o
contemporaryinguistic ragmatists.
ee
especially
ane
Upin,
"Charlotte
Perkins ilman: nstrumentalismeyond ewey,"Hypatia, (Spring 993), 38-63; M. Regina effers,Pragma-
tistsJane ddams ndJohnDewey nform he Ethic f Care," bid, 64-77; Gregory ernando appas, "Dewey
and Feminism: he
Affectivend Relationshipsn Dewey's thics," bid.,
78-95;
Timothy
.
Kaufman-Osborn,
"TeasingFeminist ense from xperience,"bid., 124-44; MitchellAboulafia, Was GeorgeHerbertMead a
Feminist?,"bid., 145-58; Jane Duran, "The Intersectionf Feminism nd Pragmatism,"bid., 159-71; and
LynnHankinsonNelson,
"A
Questionof Evidence," bid., 172-89. For documents lluminating essieTaft's
pragmatisteminism nd demonstratingames's ommitmento feminismn practice, ee "Archive," bid.,
215-33.
13
For a persuasive ase forhistoricizinghe concept f experience nd examining riticallyll appeals to
experience hat resembles he perspective call pragmatic ermeneutics,ee Joan Scott, "The Evidenceof
Experience," riticalnquiry, 7 Summer 991), 773-97. Cf.James . Kloppenberg, Objectivitynd Histori-
cism:A Century f American istoricalWriting," merican istorical eview, 4 (Oct. 1989), 1011-30. For
a feminist
erspective
n the
uses
of
the concept f experience,
ee
Lorraine ode, "Who Cares?
The
Poverty
of
Objectivism
or
Moral
Epistemology,"
nnals
of
Scholarship,
(Winter-Spring992),
1-18.
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128
TheJournal
fAmericanistory
June
996
male norms
frationality
nd
are thus
nevitably
xclusionary.
ecent
work
by
pragmatist
eminists
uggests
othhow
historicizing
xperience
nables
sto move
beyondanguagewithout ositing new foundationalismoncerningwomen's
ways f
knowing"r
rationaleliberation"
ndhow
o acknowledge
ower
elations
without
ositing new
essentialism
bout
"difference"
nd
"power."
Pragmatist
legal
theorists
uch sJoan
Williams
ndMargaret
ane
Radin
rgue hat rofound
conflicts,orexample,
hosebetween
women
who
work nside
and outside
the
home and
between
womenwho
support
nd who
oppose
abortion
ights, re
powerfully
haped
bydeep
but
seldom ecognized
ultural
issures
oncerning
he
meanings
ffreedom
ndresponsibility
or
men and
women.
Thosedivisions
an
be
traced o the nineteenth-century
octrine
f separate
pheres,
nfortunately
resurrected
s an indirect
onsequence
f early-twentieth-centuryeministssen-
tialism.The
ironic esult
was a
reinforcing
f stereotypes
f
home and
mother
that ndercut
eminists'ffortso
oosen
gender
oles ndbroaden
women's ppor-
tunities. einscribing
comparable
ssentialism
nder
hebanner
f"difference,"
as
somecontemporary
eminists
o,merely
esuscitates
lder
versions
f separate
spheres
nd notions
fprivileged
nowledge
hat xclude
ew ategories
foutsiders
rather han
opening
oors
f understanding
hat
might
eadto tolerance
r
even,
potentially,
utual
respect.
rom n
explicitlyragmatist
erspective,
illiams
challengesurrentlyashionable otions f female s wellas male identitynd
the
ostensible
redispositions
f
womenfor
relationships"
nd "caring"
nd
of
men for"justice"
nd
"rights."
Radin argues
hat
pragmatist
eminists
hould
"rejecttatic, imeless
onceptions
freality"
n
favor
f
"contextuality,
xpressed
in
the commitment
fDeweyand
James o
facts
nd theirmeaning
n
human
life,
and narrative,
xpressed
n
James's
nfoldingepic'
universe
nd
Dewey's
historicism."choing
West's
challenge
o
Rorty's
arrowing
f
pragmatism
o
language,Radin
concludes
n
a Deweyan
pirit:
If
we
arepragmatists,
e will
recognizehe
nescapability
f perspective
nd
the
ndissolubility
fthought
nd
action,"insights hat can help feministsvoid rigidand counterproductive
dogmas.
4
Other
egal
theoristshareWilliams's
nd
Radin's
enthusiasm or
pragmatism
as
a way
of resolving
he battlespitting
hose
affiliated
ith the
critical
egal
studies
movement
n the eft
r with
he aw and
economics
movement
n the
right gainst
hose attempting
o keep
alive
notions
of
original
ntent s
the
standard
or
nterpreting
he Constitution.
rom the
perspective
f such
egal
pragmatists,
uch egal
reasoning
at both
ends
of
thepolitical
pectrum
is
blinkered
y
abstract
nd
absolute
principles
rom
eeing
how the aw has
func-
tioned npracticen Americanulture."
I'Joan
Williams,
Gender
Wars:
SelflessWomen
in theRepublic
of Choice,"
New
York
University
aw
Review,
6
(Dec.
1991), 1559-1634.
See
also
JoanWilliams, Deconstructingender,"
Michigan
aw
Review,
87 (Feb.
1989), 797-845;
and
Joan
Williams,
Virtue nd
Oppression,"
Nomos:
Yearbook f the
American
Society
f Political
nd
Legal Philosophy,
d. John
W. Chapman
nd WilliamA. Galston New
York,
1992),
309-37.
MargaretJane
adin, The
Pragmatist
nd theFeminist,"
n
Pragmatism
n
Law
and
Society,
d.
Brint
and Weaver,
127-53.
1sSeeJoan
Williams,
Critical
egalStudies:
he Death
ofTranscendence
nd
theRise
fthe
New
Langdells,"
New
York
University
aw Review, 2
(June
1987),429-96.
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Pragmatism:
n Old Namefor omeNew
Ways fThinking?
129
The
rise
f
egal
pragmatism ay eem urprising.he
goal of the egal
process
is to find
ruth. uriesre nstructedo
decide n thebasis f he
vidence
resented;
theeffectsf decisions xperienced ydefendantsnd plaintiffsre concretend
determinate.
he law
might
hus seem
an
especially
nhospitable lace
for
a
linguisticragmatism
hattreats ll
disputes s ultimately
hetorical
ontests.
Instead,
aw offersne of the
iveliest renas f
debate bout the
consequences
of
pragmatism,
nd
one
that hould
be
of
particular
nterest o
historians.
he
jurist
Richard osner, he eading
member
f
the
aw and economics
movement,
believes hat
pragmatists'ntiessentialism
nd
consequentialism
re
compatible
with
is
commitmento
"the dea that he aw
hould triveo support
ompetitive
markets." e reduces egal pragmatismo the bareminimum: a rejection f
a
concept
f
law
as grounded
n
permanent
rinciples
nd realized
n
logical
manipulation
f those
rinciples,nd
a determination
o
use aw
as
an instrument
for
ocial
ends." For Posner
pragmatism
s
nothing
but a
method;
substantive
changes
from
attemptso reinstate hite
upremacy
o
commitmentso
securing
racial
quality
result
not
from
areful
easoning ut
only
rom a
sudden
deeply
emotional witch
rom
ne non-rationalluster
f
beliefs
o another
hat
s
no
more often
ess) rational."
Holmes
at
his
most
ynical ould
hardly
ave
put
the
point
more
bluntly.
osner's
ragmatism,
ike
Rorty's,
hus
ppears
o
consist f
nothingmorethanantifoundationalism.6
But the
protean
ritic
tanley ish,
n his
recent
ncarnations a
legal
theorist,
points
out
that
Posner
mbraces
ragmatism
s a
fig
eaf to
conceal
economic
dogmas oncerning
arket
fficiency
s
absolute
s Kant's ranscendental
esthetic
or
Marx's
otion
f
the
proletariat.
ish
ontrasts
oth
Posner's aith
n
the
market
and
Rorty's
aith
n
strong oets
to his
own
pragmatism,
hich
eally
oes
lead
nowhere. Once
pragmatism ecomes
program"any
program,
ish
nsists-
"it
turns nto the essentialismt
challenges.""
Fish's
inguistic
urn
carries
im
even further
way
from
Dewey
than does
Rorty's.rom ish's erspective,the aw's ob" is "togiveusways f
re-describing
limited
artisan rograms
o
that
hey
an be
presented
s
the
natural utcomes
of
abstract
nterpersonal
mperatives."
s
humanswe cannot
scape
partisanship
or
perspective;hey
re
nevitable onditions
four
existence.
or
Fishthe
pursuit
of
disinterestedness,
ames's
spiration
o
tolerance,
nd
Dewey's
desire
for
a
deliberative
emocracy
re ll
chimerical;nly
he
dmission
hat ne's wn
point
f
view
emains
artial
s
consistent ith
ragmatism.
he
very retense
f
"reasoned
exposition"
in
judges'
opinions
r
scholarship
is
just rhetoric,impelledby
a
vision spartisanndcontestables that nformingnyrhetorichatdares ccept
thatname."58
56
Richard osner, WhatHas Pragmatism
o Offer aw?," n Pragmatismn
Law
and
Society, d.
Brint
nd
Weaver, 2,
44. See also Richard
osner,
The
Problems
fJurisprudenceCambridge,
Mass., 1990), 150.
1'
Stanley ish, "Almost
Pragmatism:
he
Jurisprudencef Richard osner,Richard
Rorty, nd Ronald
Dworkin,"n
Pragmatismn
Law
and Society, d. Brint nd
Weaver, 3.
58
Ibid, 71, 56.
At
an interdisciplinary
onference
n
pragmatism
eld in
November1995 at the City
University
f
NewYork,Fishwaschosen oprovide
he closing
emarks,
hich
llowed
him
to offer
s the
ast
word n the ubject is
version fpragmatism
which
might airly e
summarizeds
"anythingoes." Although
Bernstein,utnam, nd
Westbrook articipatedn
theconference,iscussion entered n the
deas of thinkers
such as Rorty nd Fish. That focusreflectsurrent
cademicdebate;
this essay ttempts o demonstratehe
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130
TheJournalf
American istory June
996
But even
Fish slips.He concedes hat
his
antifoundationalism
inally as a
foundation,he concept
f "difference,"hich,
he
asserts,
is
not
a
remediable
state; t is the bottominefactof thehumancondition,he condition fbeing
a finite
reature." lthough
he
challenge
o the aw's
generality
eems
arring,
Fish's roclamationf difference
esonates
ith hepleas ofmany oices laiming
to speak
for he
marginalized
n
American iscourse
oday.
ForJames nd
Dewey,
appreciating
he
inevitability
f
perspective
ade
pragmatismecessary;
t was
not as it
is
for
Fish the astword.From
he
realization
f differenceame the
necessity f democracy. his
more robust
onception f the relationbetween
pragmatismnd legal theory
s reflectedn thewritingsf those
egal theorists,
such as Cass Sunstein,who consider he democraticommitmentsfJames nd
Dewey ntegral
o the
pragmatistroject.59
After urveying
he competing ersions f
pragmatismnd
postmodernismn
legal theory,unstein
ecentlyoncluded hat
"the
valuable
postmodern laims
tend to
be
not
postmodern
t
all,
but
instead
part
of
the
philosophical
eritage
of
pragmatism,"
hich unsettled ormalism ithoutwallowing
n
the nihilist
resignation
hat ll
effort
s
futile
n
the
face of
power.Pragmatism
nsists hat
all
our
categories,
egal
and
otherwise,
re
constructed.
his awareness
marks
the
beginning
f
the efforto construct
ur
categories ell, by
referenceo our
goals
andneeds, ndnotas a reason o abandonthewholeenterprise."or Sunstein-
as
for
ewey
nd
for he
egal
realists
hoearlier
n
the wentieth
entury
mbraced
pragmatism
sthephilosophynforming
heirurisprudencedeliberativeemoc-
racy rovides
he standard
or
udging
he
adequacy
of our
ways
f
determining
those
goalsand
needs.60
This
crucial rgument
ndicates
why
democracy
s
uniquely
consistent
ith
pragmatism.
s
Putnamhas
accuratelyointed ut, Dewey
offeredn "epistemo-
logicaljustification
fdemocracy.Dewey
used
epistemology
o
ground emocracy,
conceived s the
testing
f
hypotheses y
free
ndividuals
articipating
n
the
unfetteredursuitftruth.nourday uch conceptionfdemocracy ust emain
open-ended ecausewe,
unlike eventeenth-nd eighteenth-centuryhampions
f
democracy,
annot
laim
to know
what
our final
nds will
be. Since
we
cannot
answer
n
advance
the
questions
whatare
we?" and "how should we live?"-
questions
arlier emocrats
hought hey
ould
answer
hrough
eason r
revela-
differences
etween
inguistic
ragmatismnd
the
deas
of earlier
ragmatists
nd to showwhathas been
lost
in the transformation.
59
Ibid., 72. For versions
f pragmatistegal theorymoreDeweyan hanRortyanor Fishy),
ee
especially:
ThomasC. Grey, WhatGood Is Legal Pragmatism?,"
n Pragmatismn Law and Society, d. Brint nd Weaver,
9-27; CornelWest, "The Limits f Neopragmatism,"bid., 121-26; Radin, "Pragmatistnd the Feminist,"
ibid., 127-53;Joan C. Williams, Rorty, adicalism,
omanticism: he Politics
f the Gaze," ibid.,
155-80;
JeanBethke lshtain, Civic dentity nd the State,"
bid., 181-96; MarthaMinow nd Elizabeth
V.
Spelman,
"In Context,"bid., 247-73;
CatharineWells, Situated
ecisionmaking,"bid., 275-93; and especially utnam,
"Reconsiderationf
DeweyanDemocracy,"bid.,
217-43.
60
Cass Sunstein,
hePartialConstitutionCambridge,Mass., 1993), 127. For
riticism
f Sunstein's
rogram
as reinstatinghepower feducatedwhitemale elites,
ee RobinWest,
The
Constitution
f Reasons,"Michigan
LawReview, 2 (May 1994),1409-37. Cf.James . Kloppenberg,
Deliberative emocracy
ndJudicial uprem-
acy,"Law and History eview,
3 Fall 1995), 393-411.On
the relation etween ragmatism
nd
legalrealism,
see Morton . Horwitz, he Transformationf American
aw, 1870-1960: The Crisis fLegal OrthodoxyNew
York, 1992); and JamesT. Kloppenberg, The Theory
nd Practice
f
Legal
History," arvard aw Review,
106 (April 1993), 1332-51.
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Pragmatism:n Old Namefor omeNewWays fThinking? 131
tion- we must ommit urselveso continuingnquiry. hus a pragmatistpiste-
mology nd ethics
n
the spirit fJames nd Dewey culminates ecessarily
n
a
democratic olitics.n Putnam'swords,which cho many imilar roclamations
in
Dewey'swork, democracys not ust form f ocial ife mong therworkable
forms
f social ife; t
is
the preconditionor he
full
application f intelligence
to the olution f ocialproblems."t
s
the
form
f ocial ife onsistent ith rag-
matism."6
Pragmatismnd Democracy
This
view f the relation etween
ragmatismnd democracy,
hich ntellectual
historians ave been urgingnow fora decade, helps explaintheresurgencef
interest
n
pragmatism. ow that alternativedeals appear either iscredited r
impossible, emocracy as emerged s a universallyttractiveorm.But in our
multicultural
nd skepticalge,
the asefor
emocracy
anno
onger e established
on the
basis
f
elf-evident
ruths
bout
natural
ights
r
arguments
rom
eligious
doctrine
hat o
onger
ommand
eneral
ssent. s there
philosophical
oundation
on which
democracy
an rest t the
end
of the twentieth
entury? ccording
o
linguistic ragmatistsuchas Rorty nd Fishand postmodernistheorists
uch
as
Foucault nd Derrida,whoseworkhas influencedmuchrecentAmerican ritical
theory,
here s none. But the
great trength
f
pragmatism
s James
nd Dewey
conceived
f
it,
whichhistorians ore
fully
han
analytic hilosophers
nd
law-
seeking
ocial scientists
ave recognized nd demonstrated,ay
in
its
denial
of
absolutes,
ts
dmission
f
uncertainty,
nd
ts esolute ommitmentothe ontinu-
ing vitality f the deal of democracys a wayof life.
Indeed,pragmatismppeals
o
many
Americanhinkerss a
homegrown
lterna-
tive o
postmodernism
hat
scapes
he weaknesses f
Enlightenment
ationalism
without
urrendering
ur commitmentso the valuesof
autonomy
nd
equality.
Textualistsuch sRortyndFish onsider ragmatismonsistent ith heperspec-
tiveon
language
most often ssociatedwithDerrida. Others
ee it
instead
s a
way
of
thinking pen
to
the critical
nsights
f
postmodernism
ut
resistanto
cynicism
nd
nihilism
ecause
f ts
onception
f
experience
nd
its ommitment
to
democracy.62
In
The New Constellation1992),
his mostrecent
work,
Bernstein acesthe
postmodernisthallenge
ead
on. Foucault
nd Derrida
eny,
n
radically
ifferent
ways,
he
possibility
f
reaching
he democratic
nderstandings
hat
Dewey
envi-
sioned.
Bernstein
uccessfullyndertakes
he
pparentlynpromising
ask f
find-
ing ntheir ritingsthicalndpoliticaldeas onsistent ith isownpragmatism.63
Bernsteinhares
ostmodernists'
ommitmentso
antifoundationalism,allibilism,
61
Putnam, ReconsiderationfDeweyan emocracy," 17. On the inkbetween his modern iew ftruth"
and democracy,ee also Putnam nd
Putnam, Dewey's ogic," 198,
215-17;
and Hilary utnam
n
Borradori,
American hilosopher, rans.
Crocitto, 1-62.
62
I
am
grateful
o Richard
ox,
Robert
Westbrook,
ndJoanWilliams or onversationshat
helped harpen
myunderstandingf the ssuesdiscussedn thisparagraph.
63 Richard . Bernstein, he NewConstellation: he Ethical-Politicalorizons f
Modernity/Postmodernity
(Cambridge,Mass., 1992).
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132
The
Journal f
American
History
June
1996
Richard
.
Bernstein.
1992.
Since
the
1960s,
Bernstein as elaborated
the onnectionsetweenhe deas fEuropeanhinkers,rom
Aristotle
o
Jurgen
Habermas,
nd his
Deweyan
pragmatism,
hich
mphasizesractical
political ctivity.
Courtesy
ichardje
Bernstein.
contingency,
nd
pluralism,
ut he
emphasizes
he
grounding
f
pragmatism
n
the
phenomenology
f
experience.
ecause
experience
tself s
social,
Bernstein
believes, ur
private
elves annot
e cordoned
ff rom
ur thical
esponsibilities
even behind the shield of "difference." e mustalwaysbe prepared o expose
our
private
assions
nd our
personal
hoices o
criticismnd to
engage
n
dialogue
those
who
disagree
with
us,
not becausewe
believe hat
onsensuswill
necessarily
result,
but
because
it is
only
through
hat
process
hat
we
learn to understand
one
another nd ourselves.
Bernstein's
eweyan
pragmatism
ays
attention o
history,
articularly
he
history
f
American
emocracy.
Whereas
Rorty
sserts
onfidently
hat
Americans
who nherit our tradition" harehis
own commitmentso
preserving
ndividual
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Pragmatism:n Old Name
for omeNew
Ways fThinking? 133
and political
onsensus"s "the overwhelmingfact' f contemporary
ife."
Rorty
blithely xplains
he emergence
f American
iberaldemocracy
s a
product
f
chance nd contingency;is account gnores r trivializeshe effortsf historical
actors.Behind
the values and institutionshat Rorty
nd manypostmodernists
take
for
granted
ie
not only he
now-disputed octrine
f natural ights nd the
notion fGod's
covenant ith chosen eople but lso
the xperiencesf ountless
Americans ho have struggledo nudge reality loser
o the elusive deal of de-
mocracy.
4
Another
mportant
eason orAmericancholars'
enewednterest
n
pragmatism
has been the
widespreadnfluence fJUrgenabermas,
rguably he
most mpor-
tantphilosopher
fthe atetwentiethentury, ho
now describes
imself imply
"asa goodpragmatist."abermas's ffinityithAmerican ragmatismill urprise
some historians ho know
him
only by reputation r are acquainted
withonly
parts
f his
massive
work.
n
his attempt o
free
Marxism
romMarx's cientism
andhisfetishizingf heproletariat,
abermas as
constructedtheoryf ommu-
nicativection
entered n whathe calls he deal speech
ituation.
is philosophy
depends n ideas of the self onstituted
hroughocial nteractionnd
of
undis-
torted
ommunications the paradigm or ocial
democracyhat can be traced
directly
o
Mead
and
Dewey.
Although
t
startlesongtime artisans
f American
pragmatism,nterestn these deas amongmanyyoungercholars erives argely
from he writingsf Habermas.65
Habermas oo
has distanced is understandingf
pragmatism
rom orty's.
n
response o Rorty's
ibe thathe tends o "go transcendental,"
abermas
races is
conception
f
dialogue
o "the lready perative otential
or
ationality
ontained
in
the everyday ractices
f communication,"
hichdepend
on our confidence
in
the validity
f
propositions,
he
rightness
f
norms,
nd
the truthfulness
r
authenticity
f thosewithwhom
we
communicate.
n
ordinaryxperience,
a-
bermas
ontends,
we
learn
o
recognize
he
frequentlynrealized) otential
f
dialogue.Dismissings self-defeatingheuniversal kepticismnd resistancef
some
postmodernists,
abermasopts
instead
for
the
perspective
f
the
early
pragmatists:
I
have
for
long time dentified yself
ith hatradical
emocratic
mentality
hich
s
present
n
the
best
American
raditions nd
articulated
n
American
ragmatism.
his
mentality
akes eriously hat appears
to so-called
radical hinkerssuch s Foucault
nd Derrida] s
so muchreformistaivete."
He
endorses
ewey's ̀ 'attempt
o make
concrete oncernswith
he
daily
problems
ofone's
community'an attempt hat] xpresses oth
practice
nd an attitude."66
64
Bernstein, ew Constellation, 26-39;
forBernstein's
xtendeddiscussion f Rorty, ee ibid.,
233-92.
See alsoRichardJ.ernstein,hilosophical
rofiles:
ssaysn a Pragmatic ode Cambridge,ng.,
1986),
260-72.
61
JUrgen abermas,
Questions nd Counterquestions,"n
Habermas nd Modernity,d. RichardJ.
ernstein
(Cambridge,Mass.,
1995), 198. On the strange areer f pragmatism
n
Europe,
ee
Hans Joas,Pragmatism
and Social Theory,
rans. eremy aines,
RaymondMeyer, nd StevenMinner Chicago,
1993). Joashas also
writtenhe best study
f GeorgeHerbert
Mead: Hans Joas,G. H. Mead: A Contemporary
e-examinationf
His ThoughtCambridge,
Mass., 1985).
See the ignificantestatementfpragmatism
n HansJoas, heCreativity
of Action, rans. eremy aines and
Paul Keast Chicago,forthcoming).
66
Habermas, Questions nd Counterquestions,"
96-98.
Habermas races efinements
n
his major
works
to nsights erived romMead's ymbolic
nteractionism.ee
the newconcluding hapter ritten or
heEnglish
edition fJurgen
abermas,Moral Consciousnessnd Communicative
ction,trans.
Christian enhardtnd
Shierry eberNicholsen
1983; Cambridge,Mass., 1990),
195-202.
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134
TheJournal
fAmerican istory
June 996
These
controversies
mong
ontemporaryragmatists
eplay
n
a differentey
the familiar
ontrast
etween he
mages f
mind
as
mirrornd
lamp, between
the mpiricismftheEnlightenmentnd theromantics'bsession ith he reative
potential
f
the
rtistic
magination. heir
isagreementsave
helpedfocus ebate
and
enabled
other
thinkers,
uch
as
Habermas,
to
clarify heirown ideas
by
sharpeninghe
distinctions
etween
hosewho
embrace inguistic
ragmatism
nd
those
who see
its
nadequacies.67
Our
heightened
wareness
f
the pacity nd
nstabilityf
anguagehas
compli-
cated
the question
f how we
should deal with
xperience, oth as
scholarsnd
as citizens
rying
o reach
greement
yexchangingiews. o
too, ourheightened
awareness f the
historicity
f our
political nstitutionsnd our
sensitivity
o the
social nd cultural ifferenceshatcomplicate emocraticialoguemake thard
for
us to see how
we can achievethe
early
pragmatists'olitical
goals. Dewey
recognized hat
he
failed oprovide
lear,
detailedpolitical
trategies
or
ealizing
his
ideal
of
democratic
ife,
and
that
fuzziness
s one of the
most
troublesome
aspects
fhis
egacy.
ames's
reater
ensitivity
o
the
uniqueness
f ach
ndividual,
to
thedifficultiesf
communicating
he
neffable
uality
f
ived
xperience,
nd
to the
tragic etrayal
f
some ethical
deal
in
every
hoicebetween
rreconcilable
conceptionsf the
good make
his varietyf
pragmaticolitical
hinking
erhaps
betteruited o our owntime. For as theexperiencefcommunityas become
ever
arer
n
the
years inceAlexisde
Tocqueville
irst
nnounced ts
endangered
status,
nd
as politics
s
more nd more
ubmerged
eneath flood
of
symbols,
finding
aths eading
oward he creation
f democraticommunitieseems
more
problematical
han
ver.
History
an
help,
f
only
we historians
ave the
courage
of
our
conventions.
History
nd Pragmatic
ermeneutics
Because thecommunityfhistorianss a paradigmaticxampleof a pragmatic
community
f
nquiry,
istinguishing
etween
ragmatism
ld
and
new
matters
profoundlyo
us.
To "new" textualist
ragmatists,
istory
s
no
more than
a
linguisticxercisen
which rofessional
ompetitors
trive o
persuade
eaders
y
fashioningrguments
hat
re
udged
successful
ccording
o various
ontingent
and
culturallypecific
riteria. or
those
"new"
textualists,
istorians
re
writers
of
texts
who
have
at
their
isposal
variety
f
tools,
ncluding
ut
not imited
o
"evidence,
"reason," logic,"
nd
"common
ense,"
ll ofwhich
equire uotation
marks
o
signal
heir
tatus s
merely onventional otions.
anny
extualistslaim
thatall suchtropes re rhetoricalevicesdeployed moreor lessshrewdlynd
67
See
Bernstein,Resurgencef
Pragmatism";ndRichardJ.
ernstein,Americanragmatism:he Conflict
of
Narratives,"n
Rorty nd
Pragmatism,d. Saatkamp, 4-67.
Those contemporarieshave
linked ogether
as
Deweyan ritics f inguistic
ragmatismo notnecessarilyhare
myperception f
their imilarities.ee, for
example,Robert
Westbrook, A New Pragmatism,"
mericanQuarterly,5 (Sept.
1993),
438-44;
and
the
spiritedxchange:Giles
Gunn,
"Response o RobertWestbrook,"
bid., 46 (June 1994), 297-303; and Robert
Westbrook, Response o Giles Gunn,"
bid., 304-7.
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Pragmatism:n
Old Namefor omeNewWays fThinking? 135
self-consciously)
n
our discursive
radition o persuade
thers n our community
and to achieve certain tandingwithin t. It is indeed
difficulto see howhistory
written y "new" pragmatistsould contribute nything istinctivelyifferent
from ovels r poetry o helping s to understandxperience,
ommunicate ith
each other, r construct
moredemocraticulture.68
To
"old" pragmatistsnd
to historiansligned consciously
r not) withJames,
Dewey, Putnam,
nd
Bernstein, istory etains ts distinctive
ignificances the
study f "a realityndependentf us," to useJames's hrase.
We understand,s
Putnamhas argued, hat
ur entire ractice s historians-ourform f ife," o
use LudwigWittgenstein's
hrase-depends on "our belief hat ruth nd falsity
'reach ll the wayto' thepast and 'do not stop short."'
t is possible o admit,
withPutnam, hat hisbelief is partof a picture," utwe should cknowledge,
withhim, that s historiansthepicture s essential o
our ives." In Putnam's
words, our ives showthatwe believe
that
there re
more and
less warranted
beliefs bout
political
ontingencies,and]
about
historical
nterpretations."
ere
we to discard hat
way
of
ooking
t the
past,
we
would have
to
discard ur
form
of
life.69
Narratives
apable
of
nspiring
nd
ustifying
he
ympathyorty rizes
n
"our
tradition"lready xist, nd
not
only
hoseof
the novelists nd poets
that
Rorty
invokes. hey
nclude
thenarrativesontained
n
sacred exts
uch
as the Bible
andsecular emocraticexts uch sJudith argentMurray'sssay OntheEquality
of
theSexes,"
Abraham
incoln's econd
naugural,
nd Martin uther
ingJr.'s
speech
t the
1963 March
n Washington, arratives
ith
powerful
thical
nd
cultural ignificanceransmitted
y various raditionsnd by
the
community
f
professional
istorians.n a society hat
s
ostensibly
ommitted o the deals
of
democracy
ut
that
falls
ragically
hort
n
practice,
he narratives e
historians
construct
elp
to
perpetuate
isturbing
nd
inspiring
emoriesnd thus o
shape
a
culture
more
capable
of
approximating
hose deals. Without
historians'
om-
mittmento a pragmatic est f truth,whichnvolvesubjectingur accounts
f
the pastto rigorous esting y our scholarly
ommunity,
e
are
locked
nto an
exercise
f
textual reation
hat
s
arid
and
pointless.
In
That
Noble
Dream (1988),
PeterNovick
oncluded
hat
becausethe
deal
of
pure scholarly bjectivity
as been
exposed
as chimerical
thanks
n
part
to
textualists
uch
as
Rorty
nd
Fish),
historians ave divided
nto
warring amps,
unableand unwilling
o
reach greement
bout standards
f
purpose
nd
critical
judgment. lthough
ovick cknowledged
he
ttempts
fBernsteinnd
Putnam,
68
By their ualificationsnd caveats, wo recent ndorsementsf textualismllustrate he lure of a more
Deweyan ragmatism.
n thenecessityfgiving omedeterminatehape o the
past ven
f
one abandons rand
narratives,ee Dorothy
oss, GrandNarrativen
American istoricalWriting: romRomance o Uncertainty,"
American istorical eview, 00 (June 1995), 675-77.
For an argument hat strongmisreading"of
the sort
Rorty ecommendsnd Derridapractices-"is altogether
isplaced s historical
eading nd critique" ecause
"history oes not emulate
creativewriting nd is
constrained y differentorms f inquiry," ee Dominick
LaCapra, History, anguage,
nd
Reading:Waiting
for
Crillon," bid., 814,
816.
69
James, ragmatism,11-12, 102-3; Putnam,
Words
nd
Life,
d.
Conant,
276-77; Hilary utnam,The
ManyFaces
of
Realism LaSalle, 1987), 70-71.
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136
TheJournal
fAmerican istory
June 996
and ofhistoriansuch
s ThomasHaskell nd
David Hollinger, o sustain
viable,
mediating
historical iscourse hat
I
have termed
pragmatic ermeneutics,
e
curtly ismissed heir ffort:as of the 1980s,"he wrote, hardly nybodywas
listening."70
s the spirited ebates
overpragmatismxamined
here
llustrate,
interest
n
these deas
is now broad
and deep. For historians
specially, he early
pragmatism
fJames
nd Deweypresents sturdy
lternativeo untenable
orms
of both objectivism
nd relativism.
The
pragmatic est
we should
applyto historicalcholarship
s the same test
James nd Dewey proposed
centurygo:
Is
it consistent
ith he evidence
we
have of others' ived
experience,
nd will t make a difference
n our ives? f we
historiansonceive
f our task s the early ragmatists
id,
we willwrite ot only
with n awarenessf our rhetoricaltrategiesut also with desire o document
and explain truggles
verpower
n
the American ast
and
in
the culture hat
surrounds
s and makes our work
possible
and necessary.Waged
by activists
inspired
y religious nd political
raditions,
hesehard-foughtattles
and not
just the mportantedescriptions,
o use Rorty'sreferred
erm, ffered
n
literary
and
critical exts-made possible
our culture's
ainfullyimited rogress
oward
greater utonomy
nd equality
or ll citizens.
Historical cholarship
nderstood
as
pragmatic
ermeneutics
hows hat he outcomes
were he
result ot
purely
f
chance
nd redescription,
s the morecavalier
f
textualists ould
have
it,
but
instead
of
specific
truggles
oughtby people
who wielded
other
weapons
be-
sides
anguage.71
All
of
this s not to denythe
role
nterpretation
as always layed,
nd
will
continue o
play,
n
historical riting.
ust s people
n
the past selected arts
f
their
xperience
o record nd preserve
n the
records hey
eft
us,
we
select
arts
of the
past
to examine nd we choose
how to
tell our stories.
ut to admit
that
interpretation
s
important
s not
to claimthat
everything
s
interpretation.
t is
crucial hat
we
historians
e able
to distinguish
hathappened
fromwhat
did
not, and what waswritten romwhat wasnot, and our discursiveommunity
must est ts
propositions
n thewidest
ange
f
public
forums. rgumentsnsisting
on the
mportance
f
such
public
verification
y appeals
to
evidence
rom
xperi-
ence,arguments
orcefully
ade
against
extualists
y
Gunn, Shusterman, est,
Williams, utnam,
nd
Bernstein,
re also made
by
historians hose
pragmatism
derives
rom ames nd
Dewey.
That commitment
xplains
why
ome
of us have
worked o establish
he
difference
etween
pragmatists
ld and
new,
between
Poirier's
xtravagant
ames
nd
the historical
ames,
etween
orty's
ypothetical
Dewey
nd the historical
ewey. Pragmatism
ffers
istorians
omething eyond
70
Peter
Novick, hat
Noble Dream:The
"Objectivity
uestionandthe
American istorical rofession
New
York,1988),629. For
readings fAmerican istorians'
racticehat iscern
idespreadf
mplicit ommitmento
somethingesembling
ragmatic ermeneutics,
eeKloppenberg,
Objectivitynd Historicism";
homasHaskell,
"Objectivity
s
Not Neutrality:
hetorics. Practice
n Peter
Novick'sThatNoble Dream,"
Historynd Theory,
29 (no. 2, 1990), 129-57;
and David A. Hollinger,
Postmodernist
heory nd Wissenschaftliche
ractice,"
American
istorical
eview, 6 (June 1991), 688-92.
71
On the relation
etween
eligious aith, ocial reform,
nd pragmatism,ee
Kloppenberg,
Knowledge
and Belief
n American ublic Life."
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Pragmatism:
n
Old Namefor ome
NewWays fThinking? 137
the denial of absolutes, methodfor providing
eliable, ven if provisional,
knowledge hat an
make differencenhowweunderstandur culture nd
how
we live.72
Historiansace
choice, hen,between ewer arieties
f
inguistic ragmatism
that ee all truth laims
s contingentnd oldervarietiesfpragmatismescended
more
directly
rom
ames
and
Dewey.
Thelatter
egin
with
nuanced
onception
ofexperiences the rena
or ruth estingnd culminaten ethical nd democratic
activity,
he
precise
ontent f which annotbe specified
n
advance
r imposed
on
others ecause iversity
nd experimentationre ntegralo this orm f
pragma-
tism. "Therecan be no final ruth n ethics ny
morethan n physics,"
ames
wrote, ntil he ast
human being "has had hisexperiencend said his say."
Or
as Dewey put it, "growthtself s the onlymoral end."'73
Notwithstanding
hoseendorsements
f
indeterminacy,
hich
ontemporaries
alert o the threat f oppressionnd exclusion hould
find ttractive,ames's
nd
Dewey's pragmatismid not
lack
substantive
alues: the ideals of democracy,
grounded
n
theirxperiences socialbeings nd their
ommitmentocommunities
of
inquiry igorouslyesting ll truth laims,
provided he norms hatguided
them. Their pragmatismhus extendedbeyond
the boundaries f language
n
two directions:
n
itsfluid nd historicizedonception
f the social experience
that ies behind inguistic
xpression,nd
in
its dedication o
the
diverse
orms
of
continuing emocratic
ractice,ncluding henegotiation
atherhan
he limi-
nation f difference.heearly ragmatistselieved
hat liminatinghe
obstacles
of
outmodedphilosophical
nd political
octrines ould
free
Americans
o solve
the
problems hey
aced. The tragedies
f
the twentiethenturyave made
us
less sanguine boutthatprospect;we
lack
their
onfidencehat
pragmatism
nd
democracy y
themselves ill resolve ll
our
conflicts.
hus some
contemporary
thinkers,
ike thoseromantics
isillusioned y
the failures
f
eighteenth-century
democratic
evolutions,mphasize
he
nstability
f
meanings,
he
particularity
ofpersonal dentities,nd the creative eniusof individual rtists verrational
deliberation.
he
new
linguistic ragmatism
ill
no doubt
continue o attract
attention
rom
many
disciplines ecause
t reflectshat
disappointment
nd
also
challenges
he
persistent
mpulses
o formalism
nd
scientism till
powerful
n
American hought.
ut a revised
ersion
f
the
pragmatism
fJames
nd Dewey,
chastened y tragedy
o
distrustimple
democratic
heerleading,
an
avoid
those
dangers
while
offering
method
of
generating
nd
testing
deas
about
what
happenedto
Americans
n
the past and
of
deliberating
n what hould
happen
72
On
the
nevitability
f selection
nd
interpretation
n
historical riting,
ee Putnam,
Words
nd Life, d.
Conant, 206-7.
For a recent ndorsement
f pragmatisms
an alternativeo postmodern
kepticism
bout
historical ruth,
which recommends
ombining
t with "practical
ealism" ecause pragmatism
s
otherwise
rudderless ue
to its "deference
o practice
ver principle," ee
JoyceAppleby,
LynnHunt,
and Margaret
Jacob,
Telling he
Truth bout History New
York, 1994), 283-91.
This
familiar ut historically
naccurate
characterization
fpragmatisms nothing
more han ntifoundationalism
nderestimates
ts esourcesor
istori-
ans' practice.
73
William ames,
The
Moral
Philosophernd the
Moral
ife,"
n
James,
Willto
Believe,
141;John
Dewey,
Reconstruction
n Philosophy,
n
Dewey,
Middle
Works,
d.
Boydston,
II, 173.
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138
TheJournalfAmerican
istory June
996
in the future. or that
reason he earlypragmatists'deas will remain
valuable
for
historiansommittedo
explainingwhy
Americahas taken
theshapeit has
and for itizens ommittedo solving roblems emocratically.
The earlypragmatists'
old waysof thinking"
lready ncorporatedhe most
valuable nsights
f the linguistic urn nd the postmodernuspicion
f power.
Those nsights id
notblindJamesnd Dewey,
norhavethey linded he ontem-
porarieswho have
resurrectedhe
spirit
f their
pragmatism,
o the
worldof
experience
hat
ies
beneath
nd
beyond anguage
and to the
ties of mutual
respect hat might
bind us together s
humans despiteour differences.uch
clear-sightednessas mong he ld ways f hinking
entral
ojames's
nd Dewey's
pragmatism,nd it
remains necessary lthoughnot sufficient
ondition or
advancingoward he democratic oalsof equality nd autonomy.Withoutt we
engage
n
shadow
play,
unable
to
distinguishxperience
rom
llusion.