The Meaning of Pragmatism: The Ethics of Terminology and the Language of Philosophy
Teorema, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 9-29, 2009
University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-02
22 Pages Posted: 30 Oct 2009 Last revised: 12 Aug 2011
Date Written: October 1, 2009
Abstract
I. The classical pragmatist tradition; contemporary distortions of pragmatism. II. Peirce's thesis of the "growth of meaning"; its relevance to the vocabulary of the sciences and the rationality of the scientific enterprise. III. Peirce's "ethics of terminology"; its connection with his aspiration to make philosophy "scientific." IV. Why, in the language of philosophy today, we see impoverishment of meaning and violations of the ethics of terminology.
Keywords: pragmatism, pragmaticism, neo-pragmatism, C.S. Peirce, scientific philosophy, enrichment/impoverishment of meaning, ethics of terminology, language of science, language of philosophy
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