American Pragmatism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course shall examine some of the central themes at the heart of American pragmatism. We shall begin by addressing the historical and scientific background informing the emergence of the pragmatist movement in nineteenth-century America. Taking the pragmatist denial of absolute beliefs as our guiding theme, the course shall explore the pragmatist writings of William James in the nineteenth-century and Richard Rorty in the twentieth-century. In particular, we shall focus on James's rejection of philosophical oppositions. Finally, we shall turn to the neo-pragmatism of Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature paying particular attention to both his critique of the representational view of the mind and his recommendation of social pragmatism.