Pragmatism as Post-Postmodernism: Lessons from John Dewey

by Larry A. Hickman

Overview

Larry A. Hickman presents John Dewey as very much at home in the busy mix of contemporary philosophy-as a thinker whose work now, more than fifty years after his death, still furnishes fresh insights into cutting-edge philosophical debates. Hickman argues that it is precisely the rich, pluralistic mix of contemporary philosophical discourse, with its competing research programs in French-inspired postmodernism, phenomenology, Critical Theory, Heidegger studies, analytic philosophy, and neopragmatism-all busily engaging, challenging, and informing one another-that invites renewed examination of Dewey's central ideas. Hickman offers a Dewey who both anticipated some of the central insights of French-inspired postmodernism and, if he were alive today, would certainly be one of its most committed critics, a Dewey who foresaw some of the most trenchant problems associated with fostering global citizenship, and a Dewey whose core ideas are often at odds with those of some of his most ardent neopragmatist interpreters.In the trio of essays that launch this book, Dewey is an observer and critic of some of the central features of French-inspired postmodernism and its American cousin, neopragmatism. In the next four, Dewey enters into dialogue with contemporary critics of technology, including Jrgen Habermas, Andrew Feenberg, and Albert Borgmann. The next two essays establish Dewey as an environmental philosopher of the first rank-a worthy conversation partner for Holmes Ralston, III, Baird Callicott, Bryan G. Norton, and Aldo Leopold. The concluding essays provide novel interpretations of Dewey's views of religious belief, the psychology of habit, philosophical anthropology, and what he termed the epistemology industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823228416
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2007
Series:	American Philosophy
Edition description:	3
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

LARRY A. HICKMAN is director of the Center for Dewey Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The most recent of his books is Pragmatism as Post-Postmodernism: Lessons from John Dewey (Fordham).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction     1
Postmodernism
Classical Pragmatism: Waiting at the End of the Road     13
Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Global Citizenship     30
Classical Progmatism, Postmodernism, and Neopragmatism     48
Technology
Classical Pragmatism and Communicative Action: Jurgen Habermas     65
From Critical Theory to Progmatism: Andrew Feenberg     79
A Neo-Heideggerian Critique of Technology: Albert Borgmann     92
Doing and Making in a Democracy: John Dewey     112
The Environment
Nature as Culture: John Dewey and Aldo Leopold     131
Green Pragmatism: Reals without Realism, Ideals without Idealism     153
Classical Pragmatism
What Was Dewey's Magic Number?     181
Cultivating a Common Faith: Dewey's Religion     191
Beyond the Epistemology Industry: Dewey's Theory of Inquiry     206
The Homo Faber Debate in Dewey and Max Scheler     231
Productive Pragmatism: Habits as Artifacts in Peirce and Dewey     241
Notes     255
Index     277

Editorial Reviews

. . . A critical discussion about the complex relation between philosophical postmodernism and classical pragmatism.

Educational Theory

Larry Hickman has here reinvented John Dewey and pragmatism, this time in the postmodern context. No one does better than Hickman in translating the implications of pragmatism into its contemporary relevance. And here the romps through technology and the Critical Theorists, issues of the environment and the chapters on Dewey himself are lively and revealing.

Stony Brook University - Don Ihde

A much needed contribution to the philosophical literature on pragmatism.

University of North Carolina - Michael Eldridge

While Pragmatism as Post-Postmodernism indeed connects the philosophical schools of thought referenced in its title, potential readers should be advised that Hickman also provides one of the best analyses of recent work on technology and environmental philosophy currently available. No where else is the work of contemporary figures such as Rolston, Callicott, Norton, Feenberg and Borgmann so well addressed, and to have a critical study that engages all of these figures between two covers represents an intellectual windfall of the first order.

Michigan State University - Paul B. Thompson

Larry A. Hickman is one of the best interpreters of the American pragmatic tradition, especially the thought of John Dewey. In this collection of essays, he presents a vigorous, lively, and lucid defense of the relevance and importance of pragmatism for dealing with some of the most pressing and complex issues of our time—including technology,
the environment, and globalization. He persuasively argues that classical pragmatism is “waiting at the end of the road” traveled by modernist and postmodernist thinkers.

New School for Social Research - Richard J. Bernstein

Ties a rigorous discussion of complicated philosophical disputes to their usefulness and worth in real-world issues such as global citizenship, religious disputes, and cultural conflict.

Purdue University - Charlotte Haddock Seigfried

In these wide-ranging essays, Larry Hickman demonstrates once again his deep knowledge of Dewey’s philosophy. He brings Dewey’s voice into the very midst of many of today’s most urgent debates about how to interpret and respond to our human condition.

Columbia University - David T. Hansen

Larry A. Hickman is one of the best interpreters of the American pragmatic tradition, especially the thought of John Dewey. In this collection of essays, he presents a vigorous, lively, and lucid defense of the relevance and importance of pragmatism for dealing with some of the most pressing and complex issues of our time—including technology,
the environment, and globalization. He persuasively argues that classical pragmatism is “waiting at the end of the road” traveled by modernist and postmodernist thinkers.

——Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research

Larry Hickman has here reinvented John Dewey and pragmatism, this time in the postmodern context. No one does better than Hickman in translating the implications of pragmatism into its contemporary relevance. And here the romps through technology and the Critical Theorists, issues of the environment and the chapters on Dewey himself are lively and revealing.——Don Ihde, Stony Brook University

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