Checkpoint: Pragmatism and Analytic Philosophy

CheckPoint: Pragmatism and Analytic Philosophy

Pragmatism is the United States’ contribution to philosophy. The most well-known pragmatists were C.S. Pierce, William James, and John Dewey (Moore & Bruder, 2008, pp. 222). According to Cline (2010) pragmatism is “the truth or meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences rather than anything metaphysical. It can be summarized by the phrase “whatever works, is likely true.” Because reality changes, “whatever works” will also change — thus, truth must also be changeable and no one can claim to possess any final or ultimate truth.” Kant and Hegel were the first to open the door to analytic philosophy. Philosophy through analysis became important because of Kant. “Kant thought that knowledge is possible if we limit our inquiries to things as they are experienceable, because the mind imposes categories on experienceable objects” (Moore & Bruder, 2008, pp. 222). As part of the Absolute Idealists, Hegel, expanded on Kant’s theories and said that thought is being. Analytic philosophy was quick to catch on in the United States as well as in Europe. In Europe, Bertrand Russell was the first idealist to endorse to metaphysical principles. Russell’s interest in philosophy was due to mathematics. He thought that Absolute Idealist philosophies only involved a number of very uncertain and interrelated theories. Russell thought “that propositions all have the subject/predicate form, and that that an object’s relationships to other objects are part of the essential nature of that object. Russell felt that these assumptions were incompatible with there being more than one thing (which was why Absolute Idealist theories all maintained there is but one thing, the Absolute) and thus that they were incompatible with mathematics” (Moore & Bruder, 2008, pp. 227).

References

Cline, A. (2010). What is Pragmatism? History of Pragmatism, Pragmatic Philosophy, Philosophers. About.com. Retrieved from...