• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

120 Book Reviews John R. Shook and Joseph Margolis, eds. A Companion to Pragmatism. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2006. xii + 431 pp. Cloth ISBN 1-4051- 1621-8 This volume of thirty-eight essays, by an impressive list of contributors, is a resource for anyone wishing to learn about pragmatism in general, its history, as well as the particular philosophies of the classical and more recent pragmatists. There are essays in A Companion to Pragmatism that discuss pragmatic philosophers in the context of the history of philosophy. For instance, Douglas Anderson in “Peirce and Cartesian Rationalism” argues that Peirce’s rejection of Cartesianism “was radical but not wholesale” (161). In other words, what Peirce inherits from modern philosophy is as important to our understanding of his philosophy as the ways he breaks away from the tradition. There are several essays in this collection that stress both the break and the continuity with the tradition of all the classical pragmatist figures. Timothy Sprigge in “James, Empiricism, and Absolute Idealism” shows the historical continuity between James and idealism. The historical and philosophical relations between Hegel and the pragmatist are explored in Kenneth Westphal’s essay “Hegel and Realism.” In “Expressivism and Mead’ Social Self” Mitchell Aboulafia argues that the pragmatists cannot be fully appreciated unless they are understood against the backdrop of the enlighment and expressivism. Thomas Alexander argues in “Dewey, Dualism, and Naturalism” that understanding how Dewey addresses the heritage of dualism (as a common western philosophical habit) provides a better insight into his general position. Other essays in A Companion to Pragmatism facilitate understanding of pragmatism by making connections or drawing similarities/differences with other philosophical traditions, some current issue or philosopher. There are essays that create bridges with what is today regarded as “continental” philo- sophy and others with the analytic tradition. David Vessey in “Philosophical Hermeneutics” and Paulo Ghiraldelli, Jr. in “Marxism and Critical Theory” show important commonalities and differences between some prominent figures of continental philosophy and pragmatism. Bjorn Ramberg in “Language, Mind, and Naturalism in Analytic Philosophy” and Isaac Levi in “Inquiry, Delibera- tion, and Method” demonstrates the relevance of pragmatism to some current issues in analytic philosophy of mind and epistemology. Judith Green in “Pluralism and Deliberative Democracy” shows why many in political theory today are interested in pragmatism (with good reason). Cheryl Misak in “Scientific Realism, Anti-Realism, and Empiricism” argues that Peirce position undercuts the categories used in recent debates about truth and reality. Mark Johnson in “Cognitive Science” argues that recent work in cognitive science validates some of the key insights of James and Dewey. Moreover, there is great potential for a mutually beneficial dialogue between pragmatists and cognitive scientists. Premature dismissal of pragmatism, normally through prejudice or misconception, precludes a constructive dialogue across philosophical traditions. Book Reviews 121 One valuable feature of the essays in this volume is that the authors works toward building bridges by addressing the most common prejudices about pragmatism. For example, it dispels the myth that the pragmatism assumes a reductive or scientific notion of experience, or that it reduces truth to utility. One admirable aspect of A Companion to Pragmatism is that it shows the diversity and breadth of pragmatism as its own living philosophical tradition. This book is very inclusive with regard to who counts as a “pragmatist” and in the themes covered. The first part of the book (138 pages) is entitled “Major Figures.” As expected, this volume has chapters with brief summaries of the life and philosophy of “Charles Sanders Peirce” (by Vincent Colapietro), “William James” by Ellen Kappy Suckiel, and “John Dewey” by Philip Jackson. There is, however, now agreement among American philosophy scholars that the practice of limiting pragmatism to these three central figures must be questioned. This revisionist practice is consistent with the openness and fallibilism defended in the writings of most pragmatists. Beyond the original triumvirate and the oft- neglected figures of “George H. Mead” (by Gary Cook) and “C. I. Lewis” (by Murray Murphey), A Companion to Pragmatism is not afraid to reach far and wide. The chapters on “Jane Addams” by Marilyn Fischer, “Feminism” by Shannon Sullivan, and “Alain Locke” by Leonard Harris, are evidence of the recent openness and interest in the neglected historical contributions of women and African Americans to the pragmatic tradition. I predict that the next step in this direction will be the inclusion of Hispanic figures that have been neglected. In “F.C.S. Schiller and European Pragmatists” John Shook shows how mistaken it would be to assume that pragmatism was something limited to the American soil. He traces the historical and philosophical connections of the main figures in Europe and provides a survey of lesser-known figures in France, Italy, Germany and Great Britain. More importantly, A Companion to Pragmatism demonstrates that the European influence and respect for pragmatism continues today through the work of such prominent thinkers as Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel (in “Jürgen Habermas” by Joseph Heath and Paulo Ghiraldelli’s “Marxism and Critical Theory”). Incidentally, one nice feature of A Companion to Pragmatism is how each essay occasionally makes reference to some other essay in the volume, in case the reader wishes to explore further a topic. At the end of each chapter there is also a useful bibliography of primary and secondary sources. A Companion to Pragmatism includes the “neo-pragmatist.” There are chapters on “W. V. Quine” (by Roger Gibson), “Hilary Putnam” (by Harvey Cormier), and “Richard Rorty” (by Kai Neilsen). Moreover, Putnam and Rorty provide their own contribution in the third part of the volume. Rorty in “Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism” and Putnam in “Intelligence and Ethics” reconstruct what they think are key philosophical insights of James and Dewey although their selectivity strikes me as more revelatory of their own views than of the classical figures. If we were to push the limits of inclusivity in this volume, there would have been a chapter devoted to the philosophies of John McDermott, Nicholas Rescher, and Joseph Margolis. Nevertheless, the essays of .

Load more

  2

Copy Link