Download or read book Pragmatic Rationalism An Introduction written by Frank Robert Vivelo and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pragmatic rationalism is a coherent blend of elements from Epicureanism, Stoicism, Empiricism, and Existentialism. It holds that the ultimate goal of life is happiness-individual happiness identified as psychic tranquility or untroubledness-and attempts to pursue that goal in the most practical, efficacious manner possible. Accordingly, it emphasizes investing this pursuit in the only things we each control, our thoughts and feelings, and minimizing desire for and reliance on all things external to us and therefore not under our control, such as wealth and fame. It insists that individuals choose, and therefore are responsible for, all they think and feel. It rejects all emotionalism and belief systems and, instead, relies on induction and probability to guide decision making and behavior. Though an egoistic and hedonistic philosophy from the individual's perspective, it nevertheless advocates the Golden Rule as the most useful guiding principle in interaction with others.
Download or read book Rationalism Empiricism and Pragmatism written by Bruce A. Aune and published by . This book was released on 2003-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pragmatism written by Michael Bacon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pragmatism: An Introduction provides an account of the arguments of the central figures of the most important philosophical tradition in the American history of ideas, pragmatism. This wide-ranging and accessible study explores the work of the classical pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey, as well as more recent philosophers including Richard Rorty, Richard J. Bernstein, Cheryl Misak, and Robert B. Brandom. Michael Bacon examines how pragmatists argue for the importance of connecting philosophy to practice. In so doing, they set themselves in opposition to many of the presumptions that have dominated philosophy since Descartes. The book demonstrates how pragmatists reject the Cartesian spectator theory of knowledge, in which the mind is viewed as seeking accurately to represent items in the world, and replace it with an understanding of truth and knowledge in terms of the roles they play within our social practices. The book explores the diverse range of positions that have engendered marked and sometimes acrimonious disputes amongst pragmatists. Bacon identifies the themes underlying these differences, revealing a greater commonality than many commentators have recognized. The result is an illuminating narrative of a rich philosophical movement that will be of interest to students in philosophy, political theory, and the history of ideas.
Download or read book The Pragmatic Turn written by Richard J. Bernstein and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-26 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this major new work, Richard J. Bernstein argues that many of the most important themes in philosophy during the past one hundred and fifty years are variations and developments of ideas that were prominent in the classical American pragmatists: Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey and George H Mead. Pragmatism begins with a thoroughgoing critique of the Cartesianism that dominated so much of modern philosophy. The pragmatic thinkers reject a sharp dichotomy between subject and object, mind-body dualism, the quest for certainty and the spectator theory of knowledge. They seek to bring about a sea change in philosophy that highlights the social character of human experience and normative social practices, the self-correcting nature of all inquiry, and the continuity of theory and practice. And they-especially James, Dewey, and Mead-emphasize the democratic ethical-political consequences of a pragmatic orientation. Many of the themes developed by the pragmatic thinkers were also central to the work of major twentieth century philosophers like Wittgenstein and Heidegger, but the so-called analytic-continental split obscures this underlying continuity. Bernstein develops an alternative reading of contemporary philosophy that brings out the persistence and continuity of pragmatic themes. He critically examines the work of leading contemporary philosophers who have been deeply influenced by pragmatism, including Hilary Putnam, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, and Robert Brandom, and he explains why the discussion of pragmatism is so alive, varied and widespread. This lucid, wide-ranging book by one of America's leading philosophers will be compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand the state of philosophy today.
Download or read book The Power of Pragmatism written by Jane Wills and published by . This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making the case for a pragmatist approach to social inquiry and knowledge production, sixteen contributors illustrate the power of pragmatism to inform democratic, community-centred, action-oriented research.
Download or read book Rationalist Pragmatism written by Mitchell Silver and published by Philosophy of Language: Connec. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ratonalist Pragmatism argues that our interest in truth--our rational nature as practical and theoretical beings--forms us as a community of mutually recognizing truth seekers and creates the possibility of objective moral knowledge.
Download or read book The Promise of Pragmatism written by John Patrick Diggins and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-05-15 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of our century, pragmatism has enjoyed a charmed life, holding the dominant point of view in American politics, law, education, and social thought in general. After suffering a brief eclipse in the post-World War II period, pragmatism has enjoyed a revival, especially in literary theory and such areas as poststructuralism and deconstruction. In this sweeping critique of pragmatism and neopragmatism, one of our leading intellectual historians traces the attempts of thinkers from William James to Richard Rorty to find a response to the crisis of modernism. John Patrick Diggins analyzes the limitations of pragmatism from a historical perspective and dares to ask whether America's one original contribution to the world of philosophy has actually fulfilled its promise. In the late nineteenth century, intellectuals felt themselves in the grips of a spiritual crisis. This confrontation with the "acids of modernity" eroded older faiths and led to a sense that life would continue in the awareness, of absences: knowledge without truth, power without authority, society without spirit, self without identity, politics without virtue, existence without purpose, history without meaning. In Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Weber faced a world in which God was "dead" and society was succumbing to structures of power and domination. In America, Henry Adams resigned from Harvard when he realized there were no truths to be taught and when he could only conclude: "Experience ceases to educate." To the American philosophers of pragmatism, it was experience that provided the basis on which new methods of knowing could replace older ideas of truth. Diggins examines how, in different ways, William James, Charles Peirce, John Dewey, George H. Mead, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., demonstrated that modernism posed no obstacle in fields such as science, education, religion, law, politics, and diplomacy. Diggins also examines the work of the neopragmatists Jurgen Habermas and Richard Rorty and their attempt to resolve the crisis of postmodernism. Using one author to interrogate another, Diggins brilliantly allows the ideas to speak to our conditions as well as theirs. Did the older philosophers succeed in fulfilling the promises of pragmatism? Can the neopragmatists write their way out of what they have thought themselves into? And does America need philosophers to tell us that we do not need foundational truths when the Founders already told us that the Constitution would be a "machine" that would depend more upon the "counterpoise" of power than on the claims of knowledge? Diggins addresses these and other essential questions in this magisterial account of twentieth-century intellectual life. It should be read by everyone concerned about the roots of postmodernism (and its links to pragmatism) and about the forms of thought and action available for confronting a world after postmodernism.
Download or read book Pragmatism and Democracy written by Dmitri N. Shalin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the roots of pragmatist imagination and traces the influence of American pragmatism in diverse areas of politics, law, sociology, political science, and transitional studies. The work explores the interfaces between the Progressive movement in politics and American pragmatism. Shalin shows how early 20th century progressivism influenced pragmatism's philosophical agenda and how pragmatists helped articulate a theory of progressive reform. The work addresses pragmatism and interactionist sociology and illuminates the cross-fertilization between these two fields of studies. Special emphasis is placed on the interactionists' search for a logic of inquiry sensitive to the objective indeterminacy of the situation. The challenge that contemporary interactionist studies face is to illuminate the issues of power and inequality central to the political commitments of pragmatist philosophers. Shalin explores the vital link between democracy, civility, and affect. His central thesis is that democracy is an embodied process that binds affectively as well as rhetorically and that flourishes in places where civic discourse is an end in itself, a source of vitality and social creativity sustaining a democratic community. The author shows why civic discourse is hobbled by the civic body that has been misshapen by past abuses. Drawing on the studies of the civilizing process, Shalin speculates about the emotion, demeanor, and body language of democracy and explores from this angle the prospects for democratic transformation in countries struggling to shake their totalitarian past. View Table of Contents
Download or read book Philosophy and Public Administration written by Edoardo Ongaro and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy and Public Administration provides a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the philosophical foundations of the study and practice of public administration. In this revised second edition, Edoardo Ongaro offers an accessible guide for improving public administration, exploring connections between basic ontological and epistemological stances and public governance, while offering insights for researching and teaching philosophy for public administration in university programmes.
Download or read book A Companion to Pragmatism written by John R. Shook and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Pragmatism, comprised of 38 newly commissioned essays, provides comprehensive coverage of one of the most vibrant and exciting fields of philosophy today. Unique in depth and coverage of classical figures and their philosophies as well as pragmatism as a living force in philosophy. Chapters include discussions on philosophers such as John Dewey, Jürgen Habermas and Hilary Putnam.
Download or read book A Short Introduction to Philosophy written by Robert G. Olson and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concise and clearly written, this volume surveys the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant; presents major issues in metaphysics and the relationship between philosophy and science; considers moral responsibilities and ethical problems; discusses the philosophy of religion; and explores recent philosophical trends.
Download or read book Deconstruction and Pragmatism written by Simon Critchley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings deconstruction and pragmatism into critical confrontation through staging a debate between Derrida and Rorty based on discussions that took place in Paris in 1993.
Download or read book What Pragmatism Means written by William James and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the work of William James on Pragmatism Method, this book deals with the question : What Pragmatism Means?"The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable. Is the world one or many? - fated or free? - material or spiritual? - here are notions either of which may or may not hold good of the world; and disputes over such notions are unending. The pragmatic method is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to any one if this notion rather than that one were true? If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle. Whenever a dispute is serious, we ought to be able to show some practical difference that must follow from one side or the other's being right..."
Download or read book Pragmatism and Naturalism written by Matthew C. Bagger and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most contemporary philosophers would call themselves naturalists, yet there is little consensus on what naturalism entails. Long signifying the notion that science should inform philosophy, debates over naturalism often hinge on how broadly or narrowly the terms nature and science are defined. The founding figures of American Pragmatism—C. S. Peirce (1839–1914), William James (1842–1910), and John Dewey (1859–1952)—developed a distinctive variety of naturalism by rejecting reductive materialism and instead emphasizing social practices. Owing to this philosophical lineage, pragmatism has made original and insightful contributions to the study of religion as well as to political theory. In Pragmatism and Naturalism, distinguished scholars examine pragmatism’s distinctive form of nonreductive naturalism and consider its merits for the study of religion, democratic theory, and as a general philosophical orientation. Nancy Frankenberry, Philip Kitcher, Wayne Proudfoot, Jeffrey Stout, and others evaluate the contribution pragmatism can make to a viable naturalism, explore what distinguishes pragmatic naturalism from other naturalisms on offer, and address the pertinence of pragmatic naturalism to methodological issues in the study of religion. In parts dedicated to historical pragmatists, pragmatism in the philosophy and the study of religion, and pragmatism and democracy, they display the enduring power and contemporary relevance of pragmatic naturalism.
Download or read book A Justification of Rationality written by John Kekes and published by Suny Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to defend rationality against skepticism fideism, and irrationalism. Rationality is an ideal which represents the best in our civilization. The ideal, however, must be reaffirmed from time to time and this is done here by expressing it in a contemporary idiom and by defending it against new doubts. Professor Kekes justifies rationality most convincingly at the same time he demonstrates how important philosophy is for the preservation of the finest in Western tradition.
Download or read book Pragmatism A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking written by William James and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This rare book contains an introduction to William James's ideas of philosophical pragmatism. Written in the highly readable and enjoyable style James is renowned for, this book will appeal not only to philosophy enthusiasts, but also to anyone in love with the possibilities of English prose. This fascinating book elucidates the reasons why students of philosophy are still reading his ideas a century after the lectures that comprise this work were delivered. Comprised of eight lectures given in Boston and New York in 1906 and 1907, this book provides a great summary of some of James's most important philosophical ideas and constitutes a must-read for anyone interested in this great philosopher's work. This book was originally published in 1907 and is proudly republished here with a new prefatory biography of its author. William James was an American psychologist and philosopher, hailed as the 'father of American psychology'. His other notable works include: Principles of Psychology (1890) and The Meaning of Truth (1909).
Download or read book A Pluralistic Universe written by William James and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
