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HMS 818 -- Pragmatism and Justice 2122A July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021

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HMS 818 -- Pragmatism and Justice 2122A July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 HMS 818 -- Pragmatism and Justice 2122A July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 Instructor: Chris Voparil Contact info: [email protected]; 954-829-2935 Zoom Meeting Room: 711-164-8743; https://myunion.zoom.us/j/7111648743 Seminar Description The question of American pragmatism’s contribution to the discourse of justice generates no easy answers. For some, the “American evasion of philosophy,” in Cornel West’s phrase, with its critique of transcendental authority, metaphysical certainty, and ahistorical Reason, in favor of a contextualized, fallibilistic, melioristic, and action-oriented engagement with what John Dewey called “the social and moral strifes of their own day,” paves the way for a creative and inclusive mediation of diverse viewpoints and offers a set of tools capable of making society more democratic and just. For others, including Robert Brandom, the recognition that changing circumstances require changed ideas, along with pragmatism’s embrace of flexibility and experimentation over fixed truths and abstract principles of justice, are precisely what contributes to the apparent failure of the classical pragmatists, notably Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, to offer more robust critique and opposition to post-Civil War racial injustice in the United States. Indeed, the expansive bodies of work of these early thinkers is surprisingly inattentive to the issue of justice. At the same time, they worked actively on behalf of important causes, both at home and abroad, as public intellectuals and as citizens. This seminar aims both to engage the work of the classical and contemporary pragmatists, with a focus on justice, and to bring a critical lens to it. After reading primary texts of the classical pragmatists, including Jane Addams, W.E.B. DuBois, and Alain Locke, and examining debates around their writings, we will engage recent scholarship by those working in and around pragmatism, such as Robert Brandom, Patricia Hill Collins, Nancy Fraser, Jürgen Habermas, Eduardo Mendieta, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, and Cornel West. Assaying the possibility that pragmatism offers an alternative to dominant conceptions of justice, including the Platonic- Aristotelian and liberal/communitarian models, we consider the prospects of American pragmatism for addressing injustice in the areas of race, gender, ethnicity, nation, and empire, as well as those generated by globalization, multinational capitalism, and transnational migration to which familiar liberal theories of justice have proved inadequate. 1 Integration of Program Themes Cultivating a concern for social justice has been an abiding commitment of UI&U’s PhD program since its inception. In foregrounding both the theory and praxis of justice, this seminar offers an opportunity for students to explore and engage theoretical debates but also to critique these theoretical orientations from the perspective of concrete injustices in need of redress. Given the seminar's thesis of the radicalization of the tradition of classical pragmatism as a result of being taken up by thinkers of different social positions than the early founders, attention to issues of difference, power, and positionality are paramount in our inquiry into pragmatism's contribution to the contemporary theory and praxis of justice. The potential of these ideas for orienting us toward and remedying concrete injustices around race and gender is central to the seminar. Individualized Learning An approach to learning grounded in the stream of individual experience has long been a hallmark of the PhD program. In keeping with this spirit, this course attempts to support individual learning both in principle and in practice. The guiding philosophical principle of the course is that thinking about issues of justice is best understood as a reflective dialogue between one’s own intuitions and beliefs, and a series of complex and provocative theoretical arguments and texts – that is, by starting from where learners now are as individuals with unique sets of beliefs and values. In practice, the assignments are structured to foster individual learning through the seminar paper. The critical responses and seminar paper offer opportunities for students to express their individual interpretations of the texts, as well as provide an avenue for students to advance their individual intellectual projects through an informed dialogue with the foundational thinkers, concepts, and theories of the course. Particular attention will be given to the construction of theoretical frameworks that inform the dissertation projects of each student. Learning Outcomes and Competencies HMS 818 foregrounds the following outcomes and competencies: UI&U Doctoral Learning Outcome III: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Express ethical & social implications in one’s social, professional, artistic and/or scholarly practice. PhD Program Outcomes: Vii) Demonstrate understanding of theories and practices of the creative process, engaging difference, and social justice. PhD Program Competencies: Vii) 1. Explains theories and practices of the creative process, engaging difference, and/or social justice. Vii) 2. Appraises potential benefits and shortcomings of theories and practices of the creative process, engaging difference, and/or social justice. Seminar Outcomes: By the end of this seminar, students will demonstrate fundamental knowledge of the major thinkers, texts, and debates surrounding classical pragmatism and its contemporary appropriations. The goal of this seminar is to provide students with a theoretical foundation capable of informing and enriching their socially-engaged individual research projects. This overarching seminar goal will be assessed on the basis of the following Program and University Outcomes and Competencies: • Summarize, interpret, and discuss each theoretical perspective through participation in forum discussions of the readings on Brightspace. 2 • Distinguish, analyze, and critically assess competing theories and concepts, including the social justice implications, via the Seminar Paper. • Demonstrate individual creativity and interpretive ability via the Critical Responses, the forum discussion, and the Seminar Paper. • Relate core theories and concepts to historical contexts and issues within their individual areas of concentration through the Seminar Paper. • Integrate core theories and concepts with their individual intellectual projects through the Seminar Paper. • Explain difference among individuals and the complex array of alternative identities and social groups. • Examine the relevance to social justice of classical and contemporary pragmatism. Assignments Critical Responses and Forum Discussion: The online discussion forum in Brightspace is the primary medium for students to express their seminar participation. Based on individual interests, students will serve on a rotating basis as Discussion Leaders during each unit. The discussion leaders will be responsible for posting a Critical Response to the designated readings, which entails sharing concerns, expressing criticisms, and raising questions. These critical responses will serve as the impetus for the Forum discussion of the reading. All students, including the discussion leaders, will compose a minimum of one post (either critical responses or responses to critical responses) on each week’s readings Each post should be at least 350 words and contain quotations from the reading(s) to support and illustrate one’s points (with page numbers from the text in parentheses). Rather than attempting to summarize an entire reading, the posts should focus on one idea or theme or issue from the reading and pursue it in depth, recording comments or criticisms, and raising questions (or both). Seminar Paper: A vehicle for applying the core theories and concepts of the seminar to individual intellectual interests and concerns, the seminar paper affords the opportunity for students to advance their own research interests in dialogue with the thinkers, texts, and themes of the seminar. In the spirit of Dewey’s effort to reconstruct philosophy so that it “ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers” and is made relevant to “the social and moral strifes of their own day,” the seminar paper will use the resources of the pragmatist tradition to examine and engage a particular issue of justice or injustice relevant to the student’s research. The seminar paper will be composed via four stages of writing and revision informed by the instructor’s feedback and ongoing engagement with the seminar’s reading. Stages 2 and 3 will focus on direct engagement with particular thinkers, theories, and texts of the seminar, before returning to the particular issue in Stage 4. Stage 1 – Proposal. Students will submit via email a brief description of the issue of justice/injustice that they wish to examine in the seminar and initial list of readings by August 14. Stage 2 - Draft 1. Students will submit a first draft of approximately 2000 – 2500 words in length that takes up a particular thinker, theory, text, or issue and engages it in depth. Specific textual evidence from the readings should be supplied to support all interpretations and contentions. The essay should be written for a reader who is already familiar with the readings; therefore, summarizing and description should be omitted in favor of analysis and interpretation. It should be organized around a specific thesis or 3 point based on the student’s own reaction to the reading, and should
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