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Philosophical Pragmatism in Context

by Nicholas Rescher (Author)
©2018 Monographs X, 130 Pages

Summary

Philosophical Pragmatism in Context looks at human affairs and the condition of man from a purposive point of view. From this point of view it is a centrally significant feature of man that we humans are creatures possessing preferences, desires, wants, and—above all—needs. The possession of people’s wants and needs is clearly a factual issue. What my needs are—what I require in order to have a healthy, happy, and rewarding life—is part and parcel of the conditions that define me as the sort of being that I am. Both what people happen to desire and what it is that they require of a healthy, happy, communally productive life—one that engenders satisfaction to themselves and enlists the appropriation (and even admiration) of their fellows—is clearly something factual, something that can be determined by observation. Furthermore, it is something objective—people do not choose what it is that they need; rather, this is something that is determined for them by their mode of emplacement in the world’s scheme of things.
For pragmatism, these requisites pervade the whole domain of human activity, and the issue of whether our modus operandi achieves these goals is pivotal. The pragmatic approach to validation is thus diversified in its efficacy, and it is the aim of this book to expound and illustrate its merits. Both teachers and students of philosophy will find material of interest in the author’s normative and original point of view.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author(s)/editor(s)
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: Philosophy as Rational Systematization: A Metaphilosophical Perspective
  • Philosophy as a Venture in Rational Inquiry
  • The Task and Nature of Metaphilosophy
  • The Data of Philosophy
  • The Method of Philosophizing: Philosophy Seeks Rational Systematization That Harmonizes Our Issue-Resolutions with the Data of Experience
  • A Need for the “Larger View”
  • Philosophical Disagreement Is Unavoidable
  • Contextualism Is No Indifferentist Irrationalism
  • Notes
  • Chapter 2: Philosophical Disagreement and Criticism
  • The Data of Philosophizing
  • Exploiting the Data
  • Philosophy’s Problem/Data Disparity
  • Philosophical Substantiation: A Different Standard
  • Assessing of Cognitive Merit: A Duality of Considerations
  • First Principles
  • Variation In Points of View
  • Problem Dialectic
  • Problems of Reconciliation
  • Rationality Issues: Relativism vs. Contextualism
  • Summary
  • Notes
  • Chapter 3: Pragmatic Metaphysics (Explaining the Nature of Things)
  • A Twofold Turning
  • The Crux Is Not Causal Production but Possibility Elimination
  • Explaining the Optimality Principle: Self-Explanation as the Pivot
  • The Standard of Metaphysical Value: Noophelia and the Pivotal Role of Intelligence
  • A Digression on Explanatory Homogeneity
  • Circularity Issues
  • Reason’s Self-Reliance Is Not Vicious but Virtuous
  • Notes
  • Chapter 4: On the Meaning of Life
  • An Exploding Topic
  • Complications
  • The Basic Challenge
  • The Essential Core: World Betterment
  • Problems of Betterment: Who Decides
  • Problems of Betterment: Intent vs. Outcome
  • The Need for Effort and the Import of Duty
  • Meaningfulness and the Existential Predicament
  • A Problematic Attempt: Love
  • A Problematic Attempt: Creative Agency
  • A Problematic Attempt: Purposive Pointfulness
  • Some Problematic Attempts: Narrative Merit
  • Some Problematic Attempts: Meritorious Activity
  • Finale
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Chapter 5: Realism about Political Philosophy
  • Merit Complementarity
  • Calculation Problems
  • Chapter 6: Respecting standards
  • The Problem
  • Moving Towards an Answer
  • What Validates Standards?
  • Normal Hierarchies and The Primacy of (Basic) Principles
  • Chapter 7: Valuational Pragmatism
  • Manifestations of Value
  • The Problem of Unity
  • What Does the Systemic Integrity of Value Import?
  • The Idealistic Perspective
  • Methodology
  • Chapter 8: Pragmatic Theology
  • Basic Reflections
  • Axiological Theism
  • The Psychological Demarche
  • Does Religion Pay?
  • Wishful Thinking Challenge
  • Too Good to Be True
  • Which Religion?
  • The Pragmatic Dimension
  • Notes
  • About the Author
  • Name Index

| vii →

PREFACE

The book presents the author’s heretofore unpublished reflections on the key doctrines of pragmatism and their application in some main branches of philosophy. It comprises the fruit of investigations in recent years and I hope that both teachers and students of philosophy will find material of interest and instruction here.

I am grateful to Estelle Burris for her patient and competent labor in putting my hen-scratches into publishable form.

Nicholas Rescher

| ix →

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the book is expressed in its title: to show pragmatism at work. Its structure is as follows: Chapter 1 gives a metaphilosophical perspective that provides a stage-setting for the subsequent deliberations on pragmatism. Chapter 2 describes the tasks and methods of philosophical work on relevant issues. The remaining chapters show how these ideas work out in some key areas of philosophy: Chapter 3 on metaphysics, Chapter 4 on philosophical anthropology, Chapter 5 on political philosophy, Chapters 6–7 on ethics, and Chapter 8 on the philosophy of religion.

All in all then the book seeks to provide not only a clear view of the nature of the pragmatic approach to philosophical problems but also to provide detailed illustrations of how this approach works out some of the key areas of the subject.

The crux of a sensible pragmatism lies in the idea of functional efficacy. For virtually all sensible human endeavors have some sort of aim or purpose, and throughout, the natural standard for adequacy-determination is that of effectiveness and efficacy of goal attainment.

Purpose in one way or another pervades the whole domain of human activity, so that pragmatism’s essential orientation to functionality affords a view into virtually every department of our concerns. It matters not whether ← ix | x → we are dealing with theoretical efforts to explain and understand, or with practical efforts to operate or cooperate, or with evaluative efforts to appreciate. The arbitrament of purpose is pervasive throughout.

Pragmatism looks at human affairs and the condition of man from a purposive point of view. From its point of view it is a centrally significant feature of man that we humans are creatures that have preferences, desires, wants and—above all—needs. And the possession of people’s wants and needs is clearly a factual issue. Both what people happen to desire and what it is that they require of a healthy happy communally productive life—one that engenders satisfaction to themselves and enlists the appropriation (and even admiration) of their fellows—is clearly something factual, something that can be determined by observation. Furthermore it is something objective—people do not choose what it is that they need, rather, this is something that is determined for them by their mode of emplacement in the world’s scheme of things. For pragmatism these requisites pervade the whole domain of human activity and the issue of whether our modus operandi achieves these goals is pivotal.

| 1 →

· 1 ·

PHILOSOPHY AS RATIONAL SYSTEMATIZATION

A Metaphilosophical Perspective

Philosophy as a Venture in Rational Inquiry

Like all human projects, philosophy is a purposive enterprise: its mission the realization of a characteristic aim and objective, namely: facilitating the realization of a satisfying life through better understanding the ways of the world and our place within it. And as pragmatism maintains it is efficacy in realizing the purpose of an enterprise that determines the viability and adequacy of the work being done within its domain. On this basis philosophy is as philosophy does.

Details

Pages
X, 130
Year
2018
ISBN (PDF)
9781433148859
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433148866
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433148873
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433150258
DOI
10.3726/b13281
Language
English
Publication date
2018 (March)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2018. X, 130 pp.

Biographical notes

Nicholas Rescher (Author)

Nicholas Rescher is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh where he has taught since 1961. Author of over 100 books in almost every branch of philosophy, he has served as president of the American Philosophical Association, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Metaphysical Society. In 2016 he was awarded the Helmholtz Medal of the German Academy of Sciences (Berlin-Brandenburg).

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142 pages