This latest article from The New York Times The Stone column was pretty superb this week in my opinion. It actually motivates me to want to look into Pragmatism as a Philosophical tradition myself. My questions to everyone are as follows: 1. Are there any members in this group who are Pragmatists or who have studied Pragmatism enough to have a sufficient understanding? 2. What do you think about the rise of Pragmatism in China and the decline of it in the U.S.? 3. Given the explanation of Pragmatism that the author provides, should Pragmatism make a comeback in American Philosophical circles? 4. Do you think China will see improvements with this embrace and rise of Pragmatism? Featured Quotes: The overarching theme of Dewey’s philosophy, and that of William James before him, is that an experimental approach to life — one that tests ideas in the realm of action — should guide us in all domains, including religion, politics, ethics, art and, of course, science. Dewey argued against sclerotic ideology, absolutism and essentialism. Too many of us are overconfident about our opinions and tend to view them as gems of certainty, outshining those of other people, cultures and eras. To all this confident certainty, pragmatists pointed out that truth is fallible and we can’t be entirely sure when we’ve arrived at it. Our ethical claims, like everything else, need to be treated as hypotheses that we test in the social realm. Morality does not fall from the sky as eternal truth. We try out notions of the good in the realm of social interaction, and we validate ones that work for us (like sharing) and eliminate ones that don’t (slavery). Dewey, in his essay “The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy,” says ethics is not about utopian idealism, but needful matters like how to “improve our education, ameliorate our manners, advance our politics.” Pragmatism, heavily influenced by Darwin, holds that even ethics is an evolving adaptive response of Homo sapiens’ social life. Source: opinionator.blogs.nytimes/2014/06/08/from-china-with-pragmatism/ Stanford Encyclopedia Entry on Pragmatism: plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 01:23:41 +0000
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