Book description
From the Introduction:
This inquiry is concerned with the themes of praxis and
action in four philosophic movements: Marxism, existentialism,
pragmatism, and analytic philosophy. It is rare that these four
movements are considered in a single inquiry, for there are profound
differences of emphasis, focus, terminology, and approach represented
by these styles of thought. Many philosophers believe that
similarities among these movements are superficial and that a close
examination of them will reveal only hopelessly unbridgeable
cleavages. While respecting the genuine fundamental differences of
these movements, this inquiry is undertaken in the spirit of showing
that there are important common themes and motifs in what first
appears to be a chaotic babble of voices. I intend to show that the
concern with man as an agent has been a primary focal point of each of
these movements and further that each contributes something permanent
and important to our understanding of the nature and context of human activity.
"Richard Bernstein has succeeded in bringing together the
major streams of recent and contemporary thought in their common and
central concern with praxis and action. . . . His accounts of Hegel,
Marx, Kierkegaard, Peirce, Dewey, and recent analytic philosophers
from Carnap and Wittgenstein on, are outstanding for their
insightfulness, justice, and clarity of presentation. This book will
be of signal use to those who wish to understand the thrust of
contemporary schools of thought and who look towards the possibility
of a renewal of genuine communications among them. No student of
contemporary philosophy should neglect it."-Albert Hofstadter
Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor, Graduate Faculty, at the
New School for Social Research and Chair of the Department of
Philosophy. He is the author of numerous books, including these also
available from the University of Pennsylvania Press: The Restructuring
of Social and Political Theory and Beyond Objectivism and Relativism:
Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis.
