Community Denied: The Wrong Turn of Pragmatic LiberalismCornell University Press, 1998 - 192 Seiten Did modern American social thought take a wrong turn when it followed John Dewey and William James? In this searching history of early twentieth-century political theory, James Hoopes suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, these pragmatic philosophers did not provide the basis for a socially-minded political theory. Dewey and James did not provide intellectual safeguards against the amoral acceptance of realpolitik and managerial elitism that has given liberalism a bad name. Hoopes finds a more substantial basis for liberal political theory in the communitarian-based pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce. Had modern social thought been influenced by Peirce, argues Hoopes, society could be seen as a set of interpretive relationships rather than a collection of discrete interests to be managed from the top down by elitist experts. Hoopes traces the influence of James and Dewey in the thought of Walter Lippman, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Mary Parker Follett. He concludes with a critical examination of contemporary thinkers, most notably Richard Rorty, who believe that James and Dewey offered the most socially useful philosophy within the pragmatic tradition. Combining philosophy, political theory, history, and close textual analysis in original ways, Community Denied offers a bold departure from previous studies of the subject and demonstrates the damage done to liberalism by reliance on a philosophy with no way of truly conceptualizing community. |
Inhalt
Peirces Logical Communitarianism | 29 |
Jamess Illogical Individualism | 52 |
ix | 124 |
རླ ཞ ང སྦྲ | 135 |
Folletts Local Democracy | 145 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
abandoned American liberalism assertion atomistic atomistic individuals basis believed Cambridge career century Charles Sanders Peirce cognition series commitment communitarian conceive conception consciousness constituted create democracy democratic Descartes Dewey's Deweyan dualism empiricism ence essay experience fact feeling foundational greater person groups Harvard Ibid idealism ideas implicit nominalism individual human intellectual historians interpretation James and Dewey James's Jamesian John Dewey knowledge lectures less Lippmann and Niebuhr Mary Parker Follett meta metaphysical mind modern moral Mumford nature never nominalist notion numbers object offered organic Peirce on Signs Peirce's Peirce's logic Peirce's philosophy Peirce's pragmatism Peirce's realism Peircean political theory possible prag pragmatic maxim pragmatists Preface to Politics problem question radical reality realpolitik Reinhold Niebuhr representation Richard Rorty Rorty seems semiotic semiotic relations social theory soul spirit symbolic things thinkers thought tion traditional truth twentieth-century understanding unity University Press Walter Lippmann weak pragmatism William James