Studies in Pragmatism

Course content

A study of American Pragmatism and its influence on contemporary cultural/intellectual life. Study of the founders of the pragmatist movement such as Charles S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey, the pragmatist critigue of the epistemological and ontological traditions, pragmatism s reaction to intellectual tendencies in philosophy, possible precursors of pragmatists in the 19th century (such as F. Nietzsche), pragmatists views on knowledge, scientific endeavor, morality, social progress, education, and democracy, more recent representatives of pragmatism such as Richard Rorty, the connection between pragmatism and liberalism and totalitarianism, traditional and contemporary reactions to pragmatism, the controversy about pragmatism s position in the philosophical debate between realism and anti-realism.