Native Pragmatism: Rethinking the Roots of American Philosophy

by Scott L. Pratt

Pragmatism is America's most distinctive philosophy. Generally it has been understood as a development of European thought in response to the "American wilderness." A closer examination, however, reveals that the roots and central commitments of pragmatism are indigenous to North America. Native Pragmatism recovers this history and thus provides the means to re-conceive the scope and potential of American philosophy. Pragmatism has been at best only partially understood by those who focus on its European antecedents. This book casts new light on pragmatism's complex origins and demands a rethinking of African American and feminist thought in the context of the American philosophical tradition. Scott L. Pratt demonstrates that pragmatism and its development involved the work of many thinkers previously overlooked in the history of philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, History

336 pages, 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.)