Abstract
In classical American pragmatism, fallibilism refers to the conception of truth as an ongoing process of improving human knowledge that is nevertheless susceptible to error. This paper ...traces appearances of fallibilism in Jewish thought in general, and particularly in the halakhic thought of Eliezer Berkovits. Berkovits recognizes the human condition's persistent mutability, which he sees as characterizing the ongoing effort to interpret and apply halakhah in shifting historical and social contexts as Torat Ḥayyim. In the conclusion of the article, broader questions and observations are raised regarding Jewish tradition, fallibility, and modernity, and the interaction between Judaism and pragmatism in the history of ideas.
This discussion of Habits of Mind is rooted in Ellen Winner and colleagues’ groundbreaking research on the skills and dispositions taught in visual arts, music, and theater classrooms in the United ...States. The Habits students are learning in these creative contexts have applications to other domains, such as the sciences and everyday life. The philosophical origins of Habits of Mind are discussed in the context of American pragmatism, critical theory, and aesthetic theory in order to expand our understanding of habits and their relationship to creative-thinking and cognition. In contrast with cultural-norms, students’ artistic pursuits may benefit from additional training in expressive imagination.
The article challenges the theoretical “sectoral model” of civil society through a historical case study and offers an alternative actor-centered approach inspired by American pragmatism. First, ...three separate strands of research are identified that each conceptualize civil society as a sector with institutional independence, a single normative logic, and fixed roles. Building on archival material on the Danish temperance organization the Blue Cross, the article then compares the theory to the empirical case. It is argued that the CSO exposes three types of “awkwardness” in the sector model, as the Blue Cross (1) de-differentiated and became part of the public system of treatment for alcoholism, (2) applied multiple logics depending on the audience it addressed, and (3) acted in the role of “interpreter” rather than “antenna”—and specifically interpreted the needs of alcoholics in mutual understanding with state authorities. Finally, an alternative approach to the study of CSOs is proposed: a historically sensitive approach that differently from an ahistorical model analyzes collective actors historically, affirmatively, and situationally through their application of contentious and non-contentious repertoires of civic action.
In this paper, I argue that Darwin's On the Origin of Species can be interpreted as the culmination of an extended exercise of what Kant called 'the reflecting power of judgement' that issued in a ...form of reasoning that Hegel associates with inference by analogy and that Peirce associates with hypothesis and later assimilates to abduction. After some exegetical and rationally reconstructive work, I support this reading by (1) showing that Darwin's theory of natural selection gave us a way of understanding the purposive character of organic generation and growth that does not rely on an analogy with intentional agency and (2) outlining some of the uses to which this new understanding was put in reasoning about mind and society by American intellectuals in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the process I hope to shed some light on the relationship between mechanistic and purposive explanation in judgements of nature.
Philosophical pragmatism has seen a revival within the sociological discourse. We bring three strands of this approach into direct dialogue with one another. Anglophone and German scholars have ...brought pragmatists such as George Herbert Mead back to the forefront of our understandings of social action. In a parallel development, scholars such as Alfred Schütz incorporated Husserlian phenomenology with American pragmatism, reinforcing a specific micro-interactionist model. In Francophone sociology, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot challenged the hegemonic structuralist approach in the 1980s by developing their own pragmatic framework. In this synthetic review, we illustrate why this recent French pragmatic sociology adds interesting cultural, sociological, and psychological dimensions to the American pragmatic and to phenomenological lineages. We then show how these innovations provide a richer understanding of the interaction between individuals and institutions and a way to understand something American pragmatists and phenomenological sociologists often struggle to engage with: social conflict.
Justification, compromise and test Holden, Meg; Scerri, Andy
Planning theory (London, England),
11/2015, Letnik:
14, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The outcomes of urban redevelopment projects are never predictable, nor do they conform perfectly to any single ideological expression of contemporary development approaches, whether that of rational ...master planning for the public interest, a market-driven neoliberal approach in the name of the competitive world class city or some other vision of utopia. We argue here that a critical pragmatic analytical lens can be applied usefully to improve our understanding of the justifications, qualifications and compromises that contribute to shaping such projects in their contexts. The critical pragmatic approach, deriving from the work of Laurent Thévenot, Luc Boltanski and others, is offered here with illustrative applications to the case of a major redevelopment project in Vancouver, Canada. The approach is situated within planning theory related to governmentality, communicative action theory and American pragmatic philosophy. We establish the utility of studying disputes in the public sphere surrounding development projects, in terms of the objects and actors involved in particular contexts (as opposed to a pure discourse approach) and in terms of the nature and trajectory of compromises attempted and attained in the process (as opposed to consensus-seeking or governmentality approaches).
Reading the contemporary novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson as participating in the tradition of American pragmatism, as formulated by the nineteenth-century American philosopher William James, ...brings a coherence to her essays and novels that religious arguments alone do not. As a practicing Christian, Robinson is invested less in trying to convince readers of any particular religious truth than she is in illustrating why there is no basis for eliminating such experiences from discussion of the world's qualities, which to her are inextricably and pragmatically tied to the nature of being human. Robinson is a unique figure in American letters today for her depth of pragmatic understanding and arguments that traverse with equal insight the fields of literature, philosophy, theology, and science, all which speak to her pluralism and political view of democracy as an ideal.
This paper develops a ‘third way’ of organizational learning (OL) encompassing two metaphors for learning: acquisition and participation. These two metaphors can be found in the learning theories of ...OL. The ‘first’ and ‘second way’ of OL are identified as being, respectively, individuals’ skills and knowledge acquisition in organizations as systems, and learning as participation in communities of practice. The ‘third way’ of OL is defined as the development of experience and knowledge by inquiry (or reflective thinking) in social worlds held together by commitment. One of the practical implications of the ‘third way’ of OL is to bring intuition and emotion to the fore in organizational development and learning. The implication for research is to work with situations and events as units of analysis in order to understand individuals and organizations as being mutually forming and formed.
A new name for some old ways of thinking Stepanenko, Walter Scott
International journal for philosophy of religion,
04/2020, Letnik:
87, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
When William James published Pragmatism, he gave it a subtitle: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. In this article, I argue that pragmatism is an epistemological method for articulating ...success in, and between, a plurality of practices, and that this articulation helped James develop radical empiricism. I contend that this pluralistic philosophical methodology is evident in James’s approach to philosophy of religion, and that this method is also exemplified in the work of one of James’s most famous students, W.E.B. Du Bois, specifically in the closing chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, “Of the Sorrow Songs.” I argue that “Sorrow Songs” can be read as an epistemological text, and that once one identifies the epistemic standards of pragmatism and radical empiricism in the text, it’s possible to identify an implicit case for moderate fideism in “Sorrow Songs.” I contend that this case illuminates the pluralistic philosophical methodology James worked throughout his career to develop, and that the James-Du Bois approach to philosophy may even help locate the epistemic value of other religious practices, beyond the singing of hymns, and identify terrain mainstream philosophy has long neglected.
Daniel Bromley argues against Oran Young’s FIT model as a basis for environmental governance, on the grounds that humans cannot manage nature and that attempts to do so are based on a scientistic, ...modernist conceit. At issue is the role of natural and social scientists in adjudicating questions about what we ought to do to close governance gaps and address unsustainable behaviors. If Bromley is right, then the lessons of the American pragmatist tradition recommend against attempts to “fit” social institutions to the natural world. The first objective of this paper is to argue that Bromley’s view is not in keeping with the pragmatism of C. S. Peirce and John Dewey, which actually places a high value on natural and social scientific modes of inquiry in the service of social ends. I argue that Young’s proposal is in fact a development of the pragmatist idea that social institutions must be fit in the sense of fitness, i.e., resilient and able to navigate uncertainty. Social institutions must also evolve to accommodate the emerging values of the agents who operate within them. The second objective of this paper is to examine the role of social science expertise in the design of social policies. Governance institutions typically rely on the testimony of natural scientists, at least in part, to understand the natural systems they operate within. However, natural systems are also social systems, so it seems pertinent to ask whether there is a role for social systems experts to play in helping to design environmental governance institutions. I argue that social scientists can make a unique contribution as experts on social institutions, and as such, are necessary to bring about a transformation of the unsustainable institutions that are preventing us from achieving stated sustainable development goals.
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