Skip to main content
Log in

Post-experimentalist pragmatism

  • Published:
Studies in Philosophy and Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rorty's neopragmatism is an attempt to retrofit Dewey's experimentalism for the post-modern situation. Specifically, he substitutes "language" for "experience" and "culture" for "science", to arrive at a philosophy "no closer to science than to art". I argue that the first move results from misunderstanding of the role experience plays in the context of verification in Dewey's experimental logic. The second move leaves Rorty without any alternative method even for approaching the very problems which Dewey proposed to solve with his experimentalism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

WORKS CITED

  • Alexander, T.: 1993. ‘John Dewey and the moral imagination: beyond Putnam and Rorty towards a postmodern ethics’, Transactions of the C. Peirce society 29, 369–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arcilla, R.: 1995, For the love of perfection: Richard Rorty on liberal education. Routledge, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, J. The Middle Works, 1899–1924. Ed. Jo Ann Boydston. Southern Illinois University Press (cited as MW), Carbondale.

  • Dewey, J. The Later Works, 1925–1953. Ed. Jo Ann Boydston. Southern Illinois University Press (cited as LW), Carbondale.

  • Henley, B.:1991, ‘The conversation continues: Dewey and Rorty’. Process studies 102–113.

  • Hickman, L.:1993, ‘Liberal irony and social reform’, in J. Stuhr (ed.), Philosophy and the reconstruction of culture.

  • Johnson, H.: 1992, ‘Democracy as Philosophy’, Review of politics 54, 168–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyotard, J.: 1986, The Postmodern condition: a report on knowledge, University of Minnesota press Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, E.: 1992, ‘Is Dewey's educational vision still viable?’, Ch. 8 in G. Grant (ed.), Review of research on education, volume 18, American Educational Research Association Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1982a, Consequences of pragmatism., University of Minnesota Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1982b, ‘Hermeneutics, general studies, and teaching’, Synergos 2, 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1986, ‘From logic to language to play’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association, 747–753.

  • Rorty, R.: 1989, Contingency, irony and solidarity., Cambridge university press Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1991), Essays on Heidegger and others., Cambridge university press Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1992, Objectivism, relativism and truth., Cambridge university press Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1993, ‘Trotsky and the wild roses’, in M. Edmundson (ed.), Wild roses and Trotsky, Penguin New York

  • Ryan, A.: 1995, John Dewey and the high tide of American liberalism., Norton New York.

  • Shusterman, R.:1994, ‘Pragmatism and liberalism between Dewey and Rorty’, Political theory 22, 391–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waks, L.: 1997, ‘Public intellectuals and interdisciplinary studies’, Research in philosophy and technology 16, 61–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, C.: 1990, The American evasion of philosophy., University of Wisconsin press Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westbrook, R.: 1991, John Dewey and American democracy., Cornell university press Ithaca.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Waks, L.J. Post-experimentalist pragmatism. Studies in Philosophy and Education 17, 17–28 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004937320174

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004937320174

Navigation