Pragmatism

Description

A concise, reader-friendly overview of pragmatism, the most influential school of American philosophical thought. Pragmatism, America’s homegrown philosophy, has been a major intellectual movement for over a century. Unlike its rivals, it reaches well beyond the confines of philosophy into concerns and disciplines as diverse as religion, politics, science, and culture. In this concise, engagingly written overview, John R. Shook describes pragmatism’s origins, concepts, and continuing global relevance and appeal. With attention to the movement’s original thinkers—Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead—as well as its contemporary proponents, he explains how pragmatism thinks about what is real, what can be known, and what minds are doing. And because of pragmatism’s far-reaching impact, Shook shows how its views on reality, truth, knowledge, and cognition coordinate with its approaches to agency, sociality, human nature, and personhood. Contents Series Foreword Preface 1: Pragmatism Pragmatism, a System Pragmatism, in Conception Pragmatism, in Context Summary 2: Principles of Pragmatism Pragmatism, in Theory Pragmatism, in Process Pragmatism, in Practice Summary 3: Permanence and Impermanence Being and Plurality Knowledge and Objectivity Rationalism and Dualism Summary 4: Context and Reality Knowledge is Constructive Reality is Effective Emergence is Creative Summary 5: Truth in Consequences Minds at Rest Concepts at Work Knowledge on Trial Summary 6: Being and Thinking Thinking with Reality Being and Thinking Thinking and Objectivity Summary 7: Pragmatism versus Epistemology Objective Knowledge Knowing Knowledge Paradoxes of Knowledge Summary 8: Transactional Knowledge Realizing Realities Realistic Knowing Futures for Truth Summary 9: Ecological Mentality Mind–­Matter Mutuality Conscious Relationality Embodied Mentality Summary 10: Society, Self, and Mind Social Cognition Group Intentions Collaborative Thinking Summary 11: Culture and Person Biocultural Co-evolution Cultural Performance Summary Acknowledgments Glossary Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Further Reading Charles Sanders Peirce William James John Dewey George Herbert Mead Secondary Literature Index