What Good Is a (Indeed, This) History of Pragmatism? Author(S): Alan Richardson Source: Transactions of the Charles S

What Good is a (Indeed, This) History of Pragmatism? Author(s): Alan Richardson Source: Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society , Vol. 49, No. 3 (Summer 2013), pp. 405-412 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.49.3.405

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This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Sun, 28 Jun 2020 16:30:31 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Abstract The philosophical point of the history of pragmatism offered by Cheryl Misak ap- pears to be, to a first approximation, to recover pragmatism from Rorty. She does this by uncovering an “objectivist” pragma- tist lineage that begins with Peirce and runs What Good right through the central figures of Ameri- can analytic philosophy (Sellars, Quine, is a (Indeed, Goodman, Davidson). In this essay, I raise historical puzzles for Misak’s account, in- cluding reasons to doubt that Quine and This) History Sellars are best thought of as pragmatists and reasons to reorient a history of prag- of Pragmatism? matism in the mid-twentieth-­ ­century away Alan Richardson from these figures and toward now for- gotten figures in American philosophy of science who helped transform the social sci- ences after the Second World War.

Keywords: Cheryl Misak, C. I. Lewis, W. V. Quine, Richard Rorty, philosophy of science

“Pragmatism” is a term to conjure with in recent history of philosophy—for a little over one hundred years various philosophers have used the term to advocate certain proj- ects, to abjure others, to bind themselves with groups of like-­minded philosophers, to distance themselves from other groups, to draw narrative arcs through recent his- tory, to obscure other possible arcs, and so on. No one does quite so much with words as philosophers do. But what have they done with the word “pragmatism”? I have begun with the word because the word’s existence cannot be doubted. Whether there is anything in particular meant by or even referred to by the word is a harder question. If pragmatism exists, it exists as a social-cum­ -­intellectual thing. And we don’t really know what that thing

TRANSACTIONS OF THE CHARLES S. PEIRCE SOCIETY Vol. 49, No. 3 ©2013 405

This content downloaded from 132.174.255.116 on Sun, 28 Jun 2020 16:30:31 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 406 T R A N S A C T I O N S Volume 49 Number 3 the now ofearly-­ obscure history things—thingsinspireda few by Dewey andby myown research into is acommonthingtheyare alltalkingabout).Here Iwishtodiscuss out whatthethingisthathetalkingabout(letalonewhetherthere or aRichard Rorty, todowiththeword thanitistofigure istrying talk aboutwhataspecificscholar, a William James ora John Dewey it is. This bringsmebacktotheword—because itisoftenfareasierto matter? does inherbook;andwhy, ofpragmatism forMisak, doesthehistory usasphilosophers toargueover inthewayshe ourhistory (some of) ofpragmatism; whatmotivates she attemptingtomakein herhistory philosophyis intocontemporary questions inmind:whatintervention torical stance.Iapproach Misak’s ofpragmatismwiththese history My projectofreflexive here thissort istoundertake pragmatisthis- formulated as“how isknowledge possible?”: in the epistemology of hisera, motivated as it wasby the question Kant Knowledge,” inwhichhesoughttodiagnosethestalemateassawit John Dewey, Significance fromofthe his1897essay“The Problem of philosophical questionswe were. Here isacharacteristicpassage from direct ourphilosophicalattentiontowhywe were of askingthesorts ded intraditionalphilosophicalproblems. So thepragmatistsoughtto Dewey’s Hegelian heritage,apointnolongerconscioustoitselfembed- ofaimlessnessorpointlessnessor,was intermsofasort ifImaynodto meaninglessness, thefirstdiagnosticgesture of Dewey’s pragmatism cist diagnosiswasdirectly ofcognitive ortheoretical intermsofasort lar, hangingonanotionofmeaning.But, whereas thelogicalempiri- gone wrong inmuchoftraditionalphilosophywere simi- importantly nostic impulse.Indeed, beyond theimpulse,diagnosesofwhathad with manytraditionalproblems ofphilosophyandtheirshared diag- cism inearlytwentieth-­ Pragmatists.) “the”—I wouldprefer, forreasons notedbelow, thetitleSomeAmerican bookalsodoesinterestingits various thingswiththeword forms.(The The American Pragmatists , isdoingwiththeword “pragmatism” and book, Misak, new inherimportant philosophy—about whatCheryl One familyresemblance between pragmatismandlogical empiri- sions regarding thenature oftheunion,signifies.(EW 5:5) sensation andthought,togetherwiththeinabilitytoreach conclu- stands for;whattheconvictionastonecessityofunion of over three centuries,inthepossibility andnature ofknowledge, question asitstands;toinquiringwhatthisinterest, prolonged for This situationcreates aconditionfavorable to takingstockofthe 132.174.255.116 on Sun,28Jun2020 16:30:31UTC All usesubject tohttps://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from century philosophyistheirshared frustration century tomid-­ twentieth-­ century American century What Good is a (Indeed, This) History of Pragmatism? • Alan Richardson 407 century minded pragmatism endorsed minded pragmatism twentieth centurytwentieth its from exiled This content downloaded from All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 132.174.255.116 on Sun, 28 Jun 2020 16:30:31 UTC Logic: The Theory of interested philosopher young No . Inquiry - acknowl she As Misak. for challenge historical first my is here So, - who had some recog and Sellars those like Quine even Moreover, The main answer to the question of what Misak is doing is fairly is fairly is doing Misak of what question to the main answer The edges, the displacement story displacement the edges, Something confabulated. simply not is century the middle of the twentieth did happen around that lessened American philosophical agenda. the hold that pragmatism had on the hiring a prag- today no one rises up the rankings by even Moreover, department a top being and between coefficient correlation the matist; if Even rankings is quite low. being in the Leiter American pragmatism - Good Sellars, Quine, of the work one can find pragmatist elements in and a few leading lights of mid-­ man, Davidson of the other up to in logic was going to spend much were Tarski in what Carnap and the graduate curriculum in many U.S. exited Dewey time on Dewey. to do learned how graduate schools within a few of his death; you years and Carnap. Russell reading by philosophy advanced nizably pragmatist leanings did not talk much about pragmatism or pragmatist bona fides. expend much energy in establishing their own work. Rorty’s only came to be seen as a pragmatist through Sellars place of prominence in leading American philosophy departments American philosophy in leading place of prominence and Misak still finds itself. it departments, where obscure into more forced inheri- pragmatist a Peircean tracing through disruptsby this narrative concerned with epistemological technical, robustly tance—one that is aspects objective issues, and is concerned with the and methodological to the subjectivist notions and thus not beholden of truth and related inheritance finds its way This Peircean and Dewey. leanings of James to con- through way and right the Quine, V. W. Lewis,C. I. through of this sort marginalized was never Pragmatism temporary philosophy. against the tender-­ a bulwark and creates of pragmatism This form and Dewey. in the name of James Rorty by philosophy; it shaped the of analytic the advance did not die out with especially in the American context. of analytic philosophy, development that 1960 circa sense widespread a was there philosophy, American and that said it was, that it was passé, pragmatism was what Dewey technical issues in of detailed, the field had changed in the direction of language, all done in an logic, philosophy of science, and philosophy and Moore Wittgenstein, Carnap, to Russell, far more idiom that owed example, no logic book writ- For than to any American philosopher. century20th the of the with step of out was as third middle the in ten in formal logic than was Dew- in the technical issues interest growing 1938 ey’s clear. She is providing an alternative to a common story a common to an alternative - of the develop is providing She clear. implicitly in the explicitly and in Rorty pragmatism (found ment of according with pragmatism) their work who associate of many work in the mid-­ pragmatism was to which 408 T R A N S A C T I O N S Volume 49 Number 3 the analytic/syntheticdistinction.She writes: sak aboutwhetherQuineare andLewis insubstantialagreement over and subsequentgenerationsofcommentators.But Idisagree withMi- aredebts toLewis largeandlargelyunacknowledged by bothQuine and thattrace back to C. Peirce.I. Lewis I do not doubt that Quine’s was deeplycommittedtomanyepistemologicaltheseshelearnedfrom not. Quine’s pragmatistinheritanceisforMisak aPeircean one;Quine tist. It forMisak’s isbadnews narrative arc ifheisnot;Ithink to pragmatism.Misak (2013:208)isnotsure thatQuine isapragma- cussing justacoupleofaspectsMisak’s accountofQuine inrelation living (ornot)traditioninmid-­ did notinterest Sellars inLewis’s work wasLewis’s pragmatism. an “increasingly ingenious attempt to salvage phenomenalism.” What is’s himselfatHarvard) epistemology(whichhestudiedwithLewis as marks, mentionshisinterest inLewis’s logicalwork- anddescribesLew in aseminarledby J.L.Austin andIsaiah Berlin (!).Sellars, inthere- whose Lewis, only canonicalpragmatistmentionedby Sellars inthewholepieceis do not contain the word “pragmatism” or any of its derivatives. The on Americansoil.Sellars’ autobiographicalremarks publishedin1975 philosophy, and one of the mostvocal advocates of analyticphilosophy Theretofore, Sellars wasarealist, anaturalist,Kantian,historianof the preface tothebook: Analysis ofKnowledge and Valuation. 1946 explainswhyhedoesthisin Lewis his of business of orders first the importance philosophical makestheestablishmentofdistinctionandits in hishands,Lewis Indeed, farfrom acknowledging thatthedistinction haddisintegrated I canillustratesomeofwhatisatstakeregarding pragmatismasa century studiesin exactlogic.(1946:ix) century reference tomeaningsalone. That isonemajorresult ofpresent-­ because we now findthatwhatisknowable by aprioriiscertifiable and idealisticconceptionsassigned tometaphysics. This isthecase intimate connectionwithepistemology whichearlierrationalistic For ofmeaninghasthatsame empiricism,thetheory contemporary sameness ofmeaning.(2013:202) analytic-­ disintegrated inhishands,butnonetheless,wasnolonger the not have acknowledged thatthedistinctionhewasholdingontohad retains underthatnameisreally might anexplodeddistinction.Lewis retains thedistinctioninnameratherthanonfactthatwhathe synthetic distinctionaltogether. Quine “stopped says that Lewis short” of abandoning the analytic-­ 132.174.255.116 on Sun,28Jun2020 16:30:31UTC synthetic distinctionthatrelied ona notionofsynonymyor Mind and the World Order Sellars read in 1937 at Oxford All usesubject tohttps://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from century Americanphilosophyby dis- century . . He focusesonthefactthatLewis An An What Good is a (Indeed, This) History of Pragmatism? • Alan Richardson 409 view in in-­ begging argument for one question-­ This content downloaded from All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 132.174.255.116 on Sun, 28 Jun 2020 16:30:31 UTC - the whole body of my philosophic con that I wish to acknowledge theory ethics, de- and even value, of ceptions, in logic, epistemology, this distinction; and if that plank is pulled of pends on the validity will come tumbling down. structure under me, the whole from 2013: 219) Baldwin (1968: 659; cited in Misak’s misgivings about calling Quine a pragmatist have to do with pragmatist have a Quine about calling misgivings Misak’s Surely, this is good evidence that something has gone awry this is good evidence that inter- Surely, Dewey—are themselves officially unintelligible for Quine. The homey Quine. officially unintelligible for themselves Dewey—are ac- setting of pragmatism—its humanist vocabulary of doubt, inquiry, whatever So, for Quine. tion—becomes philosophically problematic to a pragmatist heritage, the impact of his doctrinal relations Quine’s pragmatism in American philosophy the centrality of in reducing work his chary attitude toward questions of value. This is surely a proper a proper This is surely questions of value. his chary attitude toward a larger worry. but it is for me only a symptom of misgiving to have, that standard robust so are extensionalism and his physicalism Quine’s is for “knowledge what pragmatism is—such as Lewis’s ways to express intentional idiom of ends-­ or the robustly the sake of action” system over another—that pragmatic considerations must, for Lewis, another—that system over views passes This whole setting for Lewis’s operate without constraint. situation problem a both is Lewisand Carnap What share by. Quine systems of logic) and a view of logic as (the choice among alternative Quine lacks both in the first place; of evidential relations constitutive thorough “more that Quine’s is for this reason of these elements. It this a form of pragmatism as that notion (in is not even pragmatism” not for are factors” Carnap and Lewis—“pragmatic context) is used by but what evidence and choice, them simply what fills the gap between evidence is not in point. operates when theoretical pretatively. Here is my diagnosis. Misak at one point (2013: 196 n.9) point (2013: at one Misak diagnosis. my is Here pretatively. about and Lewis disagreed that one thing Quine says, as if in passing, is not an this was extensional or intensional. But was whether logic of areas from minor topic far removed on a incidental disagreement of what both would acknowledge it is indicative substantial agreement; of intension- advocacy them. Lewis’s as a fundamental division between of multiple logics; this in turn is the alism entailed for him the existence is in the for the pragmatic a priori. It argument starting place for Lewis’s is not in point,” phrase, “verification in Lewis’s choice of logic—where, is no other non-­ there and where He then spends the first 168 pages of the book explaining this finding. this finding. book explaining of the 168 pages the first spends then He his views he distances - distinc on the analytic/synthetic the process In Carnap) but certainly (à la se- conventionalism not from tion from very the At of end work. theme in Lewis’s This is not a minor mantics. his dedicated to volume in the Schilpp to critics in his reply his career, Lewis said this: work, 410 T R A N S A C T I O N S Volume 49 Number 3 cism formedover Europe: International Encyclopedia ofUnified Science,asthestormcloudsoffas- concerns. Here isDewey in1938,writingthefirst volume ofthe but the fostering of the values ofobjectivityright through allhuman advocates throughout hiscareer notjusttheobjective value ofscience isrobustlymoral progress. objectivist,andhe Hisofinquiry theory that scienceandtechnologyare theenginesofnotjustmaterialbut ism in American politics during its most activist age, repeatedly said deaf. Dewey, thismostpublicintellectualandadvocate ofprogressiv- but Rorty’s readings ofDewey seemtomedecontextualized andtone most thoroughly. I leave James aside for sake of space and competence, pragmatist anti-­ Dewey dolend themselves tosubjectivismandultimatelyRorty’s and Deweyan wingsofpragmatism.According toMisak, James and because shegrantsthatRorty issubstantiallycorrect abouttheJamesian lars, Goodman, andDavidson inorder Rorty’s todisrupt story. This is and soforth. logic, formalsemantics,themetaphysicsofmathematicsandmodality, he helpedfosteradifferently focusedphilosophicalagenda,trainedon cal pragmatism dubious and in need of clarification or rejection, and is substantial.He rendered thebasephilosophicallanguageofclassi- community of scholarswhowere centralmembersof the American ner, andBobButts. This group wasa“hard pragmatist” (Singer’s term) and theirstudents:C. West Churchman, Russell Ackoff, Richard Rud- to butratherEdgar A.Singer, Jr., and hisstudentsandcolleagues the 1960s,Iwouldnotpoint totheanalyticluminariesMisak points pragmatist traditionthatwas active in Americanphilosophyrightinto Dewey had set.If Iwere toarguethatthere wasarobustly “objective” around 1930. There were groups who soughttodischargethetasks tieth century. entific attitudeintoethicalandsocialthoughtwasthe taskofthetwen- argued inReconstruction inPhilosophy (MW12)thatbringingthesci- Indeed, already in1920,thewakeofFirst World War, Dewey Misak needstoargueforthepragmatistbonafidesof Quine, Sel- This wasawidespread understandingofthetaskpragmatism est. (LW 13:279–280) authority, andcoercive force exercised inbehalfofsomespecialinter- this attitudeformsthesoleultimatealternative toprejudice, dogma, tential germswhichmakethisresult possible.It isdesirablebecause and acting.It ispracticablebecauseallnormalpersonshave thepo- tific intheirattitudes:genuinelyintelligentwaysofthinking conditionspracticablethatallhumanbeingsbecomescien- certain free andeffective intelligence. . scientificattitudeandmethodare atbottombutthemethodof [T]he 132.174.255.116 on Sun,28Jun2020 16:30:31UTC philosophy. This iswhere Iwouldwanttodisagree All usesubject tohttps://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from . . [I]tisintenselydesirableandunder What Good is a (Indeed, This) History of Pragmatism? • Alan Richardson 411 War university university War inflected social ­ World- [email protected] technological elite”—in edu- technological elite”—in ­ Second- University of British Columbia of British University reaching impact of American pragmatism reaching This content downloaded from philosophy but of philosophically-­ All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 132.174.255.116 on Sun, 28 Jun 2020 16:30:31 UTC Singer was an undergraduate engineering student at the University University the at student engineering an undergraduate was Singer the story narrative, of these scholars is not that of a Misak’s Unlike , I Pragmatists American a book called Some More to write I were If science, a fitting setting for pragmatism as a mature project. science, a fitting setting for pragmatism as a mature - at Har James with on to work in the 1890s who went of Pennsylvania faculty for about 50 he was on where Penn back to and then went vard colleagues—especially the biochemist and his students and He years. and in Philadelphia Oil for Atlantic who worked Malisoff, William 1934 in founders the neighborhood—were City University the in lived Rudner and Churchman, ; Malisoff, Science of of the journal Philosophy roughly a time period lasting over editors, first three the journal’s were of science, the understanding They sought to promote thirty years. of statistical technical regimes of increasingly especially of the details to to understand how and sought techniques in experimental inference, as prag- thought of themselves They science for social good. mobilize could only matists who knew the details of what people like Dewey of mind.” scientific habit at in phrases like “the gesture cen- involving philosophy American tradition in continuing pragmatist George as pragmatist philosophers like Just tral philosophical figures. influential in American ended up being much more Mead Herbert and Ackoff Churchman than American philosophy, anthropology - of establish cause up the took and entirely philosophy academic left at ing newsciences at leading American business schools: Ackoff social founders of operations They were Wharton, at Berkeley. Churchman of science, the measurement management systems science, research, methods the bring to sought they how is This etc. preference, consumer of science into social and ethical philosophy. of a continuing, a narrative then. Not narrative, would offer a different important philoso- strand of pragmatist thought in American academic of a far-­ but a narrative phy, - of the al the time during and before community science of philosophy It of science. in the philosophy empiricism of logical dominance leged - sta in probability, technical projects—largely with its own was a group - re interests whose technical experimental inference—but tistics, and of inquiry” purview within the general mained robustly of the “theory on socially useful of logic and trained conception Dewey’s that formed science a sought all Rudner and Ackoff, Churchman, end, the In ends. of ethics as well. post-­ of the American in the new features ­ American “scientific- of an growth the and cation schools, business schools, new social sciences, and new methods This is neither a story of academic philosophy nor in old social sciences. one of academic anti-­ 412 T R A N S A C T I O N S Volume 49 Number 3 Sellars, Wilfrid. 1975.“Autobiographical Reflections.” In Action, Knowledge, and 2013.TheAmericanMisak, Cheryl. Pragmatists. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ———.1968. “Replies toMy Critics.” In ThePhilosophy ofC.I.Lewis,P. A. C. Lewis, I. 1946. ———.1981–1990. ———.1976–1983. Dewey, John. 1969–1972. Baldwin, andtheAnalyticityDebate.” Thomas. 2013.“C.I.Lewis In TheHistori- Indianapolis: Bobbs-­ Reality: Critical Essays inHonor of Wilfrid Sellars, Hector-­ Schillp, ed.LaSalle, IL: 653–676. The Open Court, Court. and pagenumber.) ed. Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press. (Citedas“LW” by volume by volume number.) Boydston, ed.Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press. (Citedas“MW” by volume andpagenumber.) Boydston, ed.Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press. (Citedas“EW” lan, 201–227. cal Turn inAnalytic Philosophy, Erich Reck, ed.Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmil- REFERENCES 132.174.255.116 on Sun,28Jun2020 16:30:31UTC An Analysis ofKnowledge and Valuation . 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