The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority [Paperback]

John Patrick Diggins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0226148793 | ISBN-13: 978-0226148793

For much of our century, pragmatism has enjoyed a charmed life, holding the dominant point of view in American politics, law, education, and social thought in general. After suffering a brief eclipse in the post-World War II period, pragmatism has experienced a revival, especially in literary theory and such areas as poststructuralism and deconstruction. In this critique of pragmatism and neopragmatism, one of our leading intellectual historians traces the attempts of thinkers from William James to Richard Rorty to find a response to the crisis of modernism. John Patrick Diggins analyzes the limitations of pragmatism from a historical perspective and dares to ask whether America's one original contribution to the world of philosophy has actually fulfilled its promise.

"Diggins, an eminent historian of American intellectual life, has written a timely and impressive book charting the rich history of American pragmatism and placing William James, Charles Peirce, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Sidney Hook, and Richard Rorty in their times and in the light of contemporary concerns. The book also draws on an alternative set of American thinkers to explore the blind spots in the pragmatic temper."—William Connolly, New York Times Book Review

"An extraordinarily ambitious work of both analysis and synthesis. . . . Diggins's book is rewarding in its thoughtfulness and its nuanced presentation of ideas."—Daniel J. Silver, Commentary

"Diggins's superbly informed book comprises a comprehensive history of American pragmatic thought. . . . It contains expert descriptions of James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce, the first generation of American pragmatists. . . . Diggins is just as good on the revival of pragmatism that's taken place over the last 20 years in America. . . . [A] richly intelligent book."—Mark Edmundson, Washington Post Book World

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this challenging and well-reasoned work, Diggins (philosophy, CUNY) examines the history of American pragmatism as developed by such thinkers as William James and Charles Sanders Peirce and carried through into the 20th century by the likes of John Dewey, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and Richard Rorty. He is particularly concerned with the question of whether American pragmatism has succeeded in its goal of creating new methods of knowing based in experience and how well pragmatism, particularly the neopragmatism of Rorty and Habermas, has dealt with the crisis of postmodernism. Pitting one writer's thoughts against another, Diggins's analysis shows clearly that, as with other philosophical systems, pragmatism cannot provide all the answers we seek but that properly employed, it can serve us well. Recommended for all philosophy collections, particularly those specializing in 20th-century critical movements.
Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (May 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226148793
• ISBN-13: 978-0226148793
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #914,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Historian Looks at Pragmatism, June 7, 2000

By 

Michael Dahnke - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority (Hardcover)

Diggins approaches pragmatism as an historian but with the expert knowledge of a philosopher. He begins with the historian Henry Adams, analyzing his work and its relation to both American culture and American pragmatism and ends with poststructuralism, relating similar themes and techniques between the two geographically and conceptually distinctive philosophies. Diggins also addresses American thinkers not always covered in works on pragmatism: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sidney Hook, George Mead, Reinhold Niebuhr. In this way he places pragmatism in a much broader context than it usually appears. Pragmatism then becomes not merely a theoretical construct but a product of and an influence on socio-historical reality in America. He places Peirce, James, Dewey, et al. in an historical context, thus making explicit the American culture that went into the development of their thought and the way in which their thought affected American culture and history, not just academia. It is the most impressively comprehensive work on pragmatism I've ever encountered. And that the book was written by an historian, not a philosopher, in my opinion, is only a plus. I say this as a philosopher myself. The perspective of an historian is fresh and illuminating, and the knowledge of the philosophy itself that he demonstrates would rival that of any "official" philosopher. Most interestingly, he ends the book comparing pragmatism and New or Neopragmatism with continental philosophy, especially poststructuralism, drawing provocative parallels and contrasts. The book's only shortcoming is that, in spite of the comprehensiveness lauded above, like most secondary sources on pragmatism, it completely neglects the work of the under-appreciated Alain Locke. But, perhaps, due to the work's historical context, the fact that Locke has been ignored in the rest of culture and academia (more likely due to his race and sexuality than the quality of his philosophy) explains his lack of relevance to Diggins's book.

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Venture into the interior, September 30, 2003

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority (Hardcover)

I was recently informed that Philosophy was assaulted by something like pragmatism at the end of the nineteenth century. And after seeing a Kantian accused of mental derangement for his views it behooved me to prepare a reconaissance expedition into this unfamiliar country. This book more than foots the bill and is a rich vein of information and history on all aspects of this curiously sly descant on the great philosophic tradition. I think its riddle can be lost after excessive familiarity or formalization, and the crux of its mordant bite is best seen at its threshold in the period also recounted in Menand's The Metaphysical Club. This text also brings in a rare insight into Neibuhr, and his interaction with it all. It is no fault of the book that the subject makes me nervous, one needs a quaint disguise to veil 'old fashioned' interest in Kant. One could be put in a straighjacket, you know.
I think Dewey's essay on Darwin tells us something about the subject. Did philosophy really need to be rewritten to Darwin's standard?
Anyway, while long compared with Menand's The Metaphysical Club, this work was compelling every step of the way. I am ready to write up my field notes on the natives. Good show.