The Future of Pragmatism

Misak argues that, contra the once-popular “eclipse” narrative, pragmatism has always had periods of greater and of lesser respectability. The version of pragmatism that began with Charles Peirce and that continued with Frank Ramsey and C. I. Lewis “was always a vital part of analytic philosophy.” After Rorty’s appropriation of some of William James’s and John Dewey’s ideas, pragmatism began to ramify in ways some of which were inspired by the idea that “there is no getting away from the human when it comes to truth or any other concept of ours.” Setting aside questions about representational relations between words and things, new pragmatists sought to understand the concepts of meaning, truth, knowledge, etc. in terms of human agency and practices. Even newer pragmatists have brought this sensibility to bear on a wide range of philosophical issues and in law, medicine, and international relations. There has been a recent proliferation of excellent scholarly work on classical pragmatists and of work that excavates “the buried contribution of early women pragmatists” like Victoria Lady Welby and Margaret Macdonald. Misak concludes that the future of pragmatism is very bright.