Pragmatism Today Volume11 I
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INDEXED BY: The Philosopher's Index Scopus EDITORIAL & ADVISORY BOARDS Richard Hart GUEST EDITORS Bloomfield College, USA Larry Hickman Lyuba Bugaeva Southern Illinois University, USA Saint-Petersburg State University Dorota Koczanowicz [email protected] University of Wrocław, Poland Armen Marsoobian Southern Connecticut State University Leszek Koczanowicz [email protected] University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland Alan Malachowski EDITOR IN CHIEF University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Armen Marsoobian Alexander Kremer Southern Connecticut State University, USA Univesity of Szeged, Hungary Carlos Mougán [email protected] University of Cadiz, Spain Miklos Nyiro ASSOCIATE EDITORS University of Miskolc, Hungary Gregory Pappas Don Morse Texas A&M University, USA Webster University, USA Ramón Rodríguez Aguilera [email protected] University of Sevilla, Spain Henrik Rydenfelt John Ryder University of Helsinki, Finland Széchenyi István University, Hungary [email protected] Herman Saatkamp Philipp Dorstewitz Institute for American Thought, Indiana University American University of Ras-al-Khaimah, UAE Indianapolis [email protected] Richard Shusterman Florida Atlantic University, USA ADVISORY BOARD Radim Šíp Masaryk University, Czech Republic Lyuba Bugaeva Charlene Haddock Seigfried Saint Petersburg State University, Russia Purdue University, USA Gideon Calder Paul Thompson University of Wales, United Kingdom Michigan State University, USA James Campbell Christopher Voparil University of Toledo, USA Union Institute and University, USA Ramón del Castillo Kathleen Wallace Universidad Nacional Educación a Distancia, Spain Hofstra University, USA Vincent Colapietro Gert Wegmarshaus Pennsylvania State University, USA DAAD, Germany Michael Eldridge † Nina Yulina † University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA Institute of Philosophy, Tigran Epoyan Russian Academy of Science, Russia UNESCO Moscow Office, Russia Susan Haack This project would not have been possible without the University of Miami, USA generous support of SAAP. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: PRAGMATISM AS THEORY IN ACTION Lyubov Bugaeva, Armen T. Marsoobian ................................................................................................................... 6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL E UROPEAN P RAGMATI ST FORUM John Ry der, Emil Višňovský ......................................................................................................................................... 8 POLITICAL THEORY IN DEFENSE OF MORAL LIBERALISM John Ry der ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13 JAMES’S CHILDREN ? POST -F ACTUALISM AS A DESCENDANT OF THE P RAGMATIST C ONCEPTION OF TRUTH Sami Pihlström ............................................................................................................................................................. 25 PHILOSOPHY OF PRAGMATISM AS A SOLUTION AFTER A N (UN) S UCCESSFUL TRANSFORMATION Ľubomír Dunaj .............................................................................................................................................................. 38 SOCIAL PRACTICE AND LIVED EXPERIENCE THE ED GES OF RESISTANCE Scott Pratt .................................................................................................................................................................... 55 INTERSECTIONALITY AND FRAGMENTATION Kathleen Wallace ......................................................................................................................................................... 65 THE SOCIA L SELF AND SOCIA L DEATH : RETHINKING REPARATIONS FOR GENOCIDE AND CRI MES AGAINST HUMANITY Armen T. Marsoobian ................................................................................................................................................. 79 TESTING THE TRUTH Jane Skinner .................................................................................................................................................................. 86 SOCIAL PRACTICE AND SCIENCE SCIENCE AS CU LTURAL P RACTICE Emil Višňovský .............................................................................................................................................................. 96 ON THE POSSIBILITY OF INTELLIGENT PLANNING : A DEWEYAN PERSPECTIVE ON DISPERSED INTELLIGENCE AND RATIONAL DEMOCRATI C DELIBERATION Philipp Dorstewitz .................................................................................................................................................... 104 HISTORY OF PRAGMATISM WHY EMERSON ? James Campbell ......................................................................................................................................................... 114 SANTAYANA : BIOGRAPHY AND TH E FUTU RE OF PHILOSOPHY Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. .......................................................................................................................................... 125 4 LANGUAGE , BEHAVIOR AND CREATIVITY : G. H. MEAD’S RENEWED NATURALISM Rosa M. Calcaterra ................................................................................................................................................... 137 BLACK MOU NTAIN C OLLEGE AS A F ORM OF LIFE Lyubov Bugaeva ......................................................................................................................................................... 146 BOOK REVIEW THE NETWORK SELF: RELATION, P ROCESS, AN D PERSO NA L IDE NTITY () John Ry der ................................................................................................................................................................... 155 5 INTRODUCTION: PRAGMATISM AS THEORY IN ACTION its birth, the CEPF has had an ambitious goal to “open Lyubov Bugaeva eyes” – to create an environment that is educational, Armen T. Marsoobian experimental, experiential, pluralist and thought-provok- ing, thus enriching the experiences of the forums’ partic- ipants from both sides of the Atlantic. It was and is “an The “blooming, buzzing confusion” that was James’s inclusive and mutually enhancing community of action description of a baby’s experience of the world also and thought”.3 This special issue of Pragmatism Today is characterizes everyday lived experience at large. Not the tip of an iceberg; it gives a glimpse at what pragma- only is the universe pluralistic, but our interaction with tist thought can bring into the discussion of the contem- the world is multimodal, as cognition “begins not with porary world. The contributors to the special issue are the amodal symbols of language but with multimodal the co-founders of the Central European Pragmatist simulations of multimodal memories of multimodal Forum (John Ryder and Emil Višňovský), members of its experiences”,1 and is probably true now more than ever. board (Lyubov Bugaeva, James Campbell, Ľubomír Dunaj, In their attempt to understand contemporary politics, Sami Pihlström, Scott Pratt, Jane Skinner), keynote arts, social and cultural practices, many theoretical dis- speakers from the bi-annual conferences of the CEPF courses have lost their critical value. Meanwhile, in (Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. and Rosa M. Calcaterra) and recent decades, in both the United States and Europe, long-standing participants (Philipp Dorstewitz, Armen T. we have witnessed the rise of a pragmatist tradition that Marsoobian and Kathleen Wallace). The authors apply insistently emphasizes the concept of experience based pragmatist theory temperament and to politics and lived on “vital interaction of a live creature with the environ- experience, discuss it in relation to social practice and ment in which he exists”.2 Pragmatism offers the lan- science, and examine its history. The issue opens with “A guage to describe, to discuss and to chart dominant ways Brief History of the Central European Pragmatist Forum”, of experiencing and thinking about the world, no matter told by its co-founders John Ryder and Emil Višňovský, how complex the world is. The philosophy of pragmatism and describes how a casual conversation during a con- is instrumental, in Dewey’s sense. It finds its theoretical ference in Boston led to the creation of the first pragma- and practical application in various domains, i.e., in tist platform for American-European dialogue after the politics and social life, in culture and the arts, in science Cold War. and education, and it boosts the ongoing growth of The application of pragmatist ideas to political theory experience in all those domains in a sequence of “dis- is discussed in the three papers presented in the section coveries”. One could say that pragmatism is not just a on Political Theory. John Ryder in his article “In Defense theory, but a theory in action. The articles collected in of Moral Liberalism” discusses moral liberalism in its this special issue of Pragmatism Today demonstrate that. opposition to what he identifies as five general sets of This issue is a celebration of the Central European contemporary illiberal challenges, i.e., populist national- Pragmatist Forum (CEPF), an organization created 20 ism, authoritarianism, elitism, traditionalism, moral years ago in order to provide a space for the interaction absolutism. Seeing these forms of illiberalism as a threat of American and European scholars who work