The Necessity of Pragmatism: John Dewey's Conception of Philosophy [Paperback]

R. W. Sleeper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2001

"Hailed as the most important overall reassessment of Dewey in several decades" (Sidney Ratner, Journal of Speculative Philosophy), "The Necessity of Pragmatism" investigates the most difficult and neglected aspects of Dewey's thought, his metaphysics and logic. R. W. Sleeper argues for a fundamental unity in Dewey's work, a unity that rests on his philosophy of language, and clarifies Dewey's conception of pragmatism as an action-based philosophy with the power to effect social change through criticism and inquiry. Identifying Dewey's differences with his pragmatist forerunners, Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, Sleeper elucidates Dewey's reshaping of pragmatism and the radical significance of his philosophy of culture. In this first paperback edition, a new introduction by Tom Burke establishes the ongoing importance of Sleeper's analysis of the integrity of Dewey's work and its implications for mathematics, aesthetics, and the cognitive sciences."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sleeper does an excellent job of explaining the often overlooked aspects of Dewey's philosophy. This work allows the reader to investigate different angles of this philosophy which has influenced so many other fields." -- Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies ADVANCE PRAISE "In terms of scholarship, substance, and style, this book is a masterpiece in the original sense of the term. It is indispensable for comprehending Dewey's project in the manner he himself conceived this project." -- Vincent Colapietro, newsletter for the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy "[In] this carefully crafted and elegantly phrased book, Sleeper has given us a profound analysis and an original reassessment and reconstruction of Dewey's conception of philosophy, especially in relation to his logic and metaphysics. Other Dewey scholars may differ in their interpretation of various points, but all are in Sleeper's debt for demonstrating that Dewey's philosophy still stimulates fresh thinking on important issues in theory and practice." -- Sidney Ratner, Journal of Speculative Philosophy "This essay ... Is unquestionably the best book written on Dewey's logic and among the very best studies of his philosophy." -- H. S. Thayer, Canadian Philosophical Review "[In] this carefully crafted and elegantly phrased book, Sleeper has given us a profound analysis and an original reassessment and reconstruction of Dewey's conception of philosophy, especially in relation to his logic and metaphysics. "--Sidney Ratner, Journal of Speculative Philosophy*

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (March 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252069544
• ISBN-13: 978-0252069543
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,198,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the classics on pragmatism, January 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Necessity of Pragmatism: John Dewey's Conception of Philosophy (Paperback)

This is rigorous, tightly argued book that explores pragmatism (especially Dewey and the relation of his thought to that of C.S. Peirce), the relation between a pragmatic theory of experience and a pragmatic theory or logic of inquiry, and the meaning of intelligence. An earlier reviewer is right to point out that this is a book that assumes substantial knowledge of pragmatism. If you have not read big chunks of Peirce, James, and Dewey, and if you do not know your way around philosophy a bit, this book will be too advanced. It is not, for all that, barren or irrelevant. Indeed, the practical implications of this book--at least for persons with sufficient background to grasp them--are large and important. Sleeper's account of pragmatism and its conception of philosophy is challenging and effectively argued. Persons who have been getting their pragmatism through the works of thinkers like Rorty or Putnam or Cavell or McDowell would do well to redirect themselves to, and through this book. After reading this book, it is not hard to see why experts in the field--for instance scholars associated with the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy--consider it a classic. This re-issue will insure that new readers have access to it. An absolutely key book in the contemporary study and forward direction of pragmatism

7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars unreadable, August 27, 2001

By 

Dianelos Georgoudis (Greece) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Necessity of Pragmatism: John Dewey's Conception of Philosophy (Paperback)

This book can be read only by academic philosophers. Unfortunately it is not an exposition for the general public of the important and relevant ideas of Dewey. It is a book filled by "isms"; it assumes that the reader already knows not only Dewey's philosophy but also that he is an expert on most other philosophers also. Really quite unreadable. Here are a few typical sentences from the book: "Dewey is challenging both Venn's account of experience as divisible into perception and conception and the analytic-synthetic distinction presupposed in both empirical logic after Hume and the transcendental logic of neo-Kantians and objective idealists." Or: "For, once it is accepted that the true subject-matter of Dewey's metaphysics is experience itself, which allows Dewey's project to be assimilated to Kant's in the Critique of Pure Reason, it becomes almost impossible not to agree with Santayana's accusation that Dewey is half-hearted in his naturalism". Or: "Generic traits are expressed as the terms of the conclusions drawn, in propositions that have projectibility, but in practice they have both extensional and intentional meaning: the are the temporal and existential evidence of valid inference." I think that philosophical books written in a language that only other philosophers understand are meaningless. Philosophy has meaning only as far as it is relevant to peoples' lives. This book only demonstrates how barren philosophy can become when it creates its own artificial code of communication, in a way that is completely detached from the need for understanding of people in general. I am sure that Dewey's ideas can be discussed quite clearly in a more accessible language, focusing more on the ideas themselves and less on the discord between philosophers.