Book description
Rethinking Pragmatism
explores the work of the American Pragmatists, particularly James and
Dewey, challenging entrenched views of their positions on truth,
meaning, instrumentalism, realism, pluralism and religious beliefs. It
clarifies pragmatic ideas and arguments spelling out the significant
implications they have for present-day philosophical controversies.
- Explores the work of the American Pragmatists, especially James
and Dewey, on the issues of truth, reference, meaning,
instrumentalism, essences, realism, pluralism and religious beliefs.
- The only available publication to provide a detailed commentary on
James's book, Pragmatism, while exploring the implications of
the American Pragmatists' ideas and arguments for contemporary
philosophical issues
- Challenges standard readings of the American Pragmatists'
positions in a way that illuminates and questions the assumptions
underlying current discussions of these topics.
- Coherently arranged by structuring the book around the themes
discussed in each chapter of James's original work.
- Provides a new analysis and understanding of the pragmatic theory
of truth and semantics.
Robert Schwartz is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He has taught at Rockefeller
University and CUNY and has been a visiting professor at, amongst
others, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Vision: Variations
on Some Berkeleian Themes (Blackwell, 1994) and Visual
Versions (MIT Press, 2006) and the editor of Perception
(Blackwell, 2004). He has published numerous articles developing
pragmatic approaches to issues in epistemology, language, metaphysics,
and the philosophy of science.
