Native Pragmatism: Rethinking the Roots of American Philosophy by Scott L. Pratt

by Scott L. Pratt

Scott L. Pratt challenges the accepted histories of American thought and argues that its most distinctive philosophy, pragmatism, originates in a context framed by the philosophical ideas and attitudes of Native American thought.Author Scott L. Pratt is Associate Professor of Philosophy and head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Oregon. He received his B. A. in philosophy from Beloit College (Wisconsin) and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He teaches American Philosophy and the history of Modern European Philosophy, and is co-editor of American An Anthology and The Philosophical Writings of Cadwallader Colden.

Genres: Philosophy, History

Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interaction, pluralism, community, and growth.

I feel like i understand the concepts of land based and relation based knowledge in a way i didn't before. This wasn't what i was expecting when i started the book but it's the part that makes me most glad i read it.

I think I added this to my to read list after i came across a reference to it in another text talking about Iroquois influences on the US founding fathers, so I was anticipating that part of things. But i don't think I'd ever heard about the influence of Indigenous women on the suffragette movement before!

Just a note: it says Native in the title but the context is really focused on the northeast part of what is now the US and the philosophies and cultures discussed are mostly from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).

I appreciate how clear the writing was, also. (i just finished a couple of books that were, in one case much more theoretically dense and in the other case much more poorly reasoned. So while this is still written in a very academic style, in contrast to those it was really refreshing.)