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The Pragmatic Turn
In this major new work, Richard J. Bernstein argues that many of the most important themes in philosophy during the past one hundred and fifty years are variations and developments of ideas that were prominent in the classical American Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey and George H Mead. Pragmatism begins with a thoroughgoing critique of the Cartesianism that dominated so much of modern philosophy. The pragmatic thinkers reject a sharp dichotomy between subject and object, mind-body dualism, the quest for certainty and the spectator theory of knowledge. They seek to bring about a sea change in philosophy that highlights the social character of human experience and normative social practices, the self-correcting nature of all inquiry, and the continuity of theory and practice. And they-especially James, Dewey, and Mead-emphasize the democratic ethical-political consequences of a pragmatic orientation. Many of the themes developed by the pragmatic thinkers were also central to the work of major twentieth century philosophers like Wittgenstein and Heidegger, but the so-called analytic-continental split obscures this underlying continuity. Bernstein develops an alternative reading of contemporary philosophy that brings out the persistence and continuity of pragmatic themes. He critically examines the work of leading contemporary philosophers who have been deeply influenced by pragmatism, including Hilary Putnam, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, and Robert Brandom, and he explains why the discussion of pragmatism is so alive, varied and widespread. This lucid, wide-ranging book by one of America's leading philosophers will be compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand the state of philosophy today.
300 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 2, 2024
A Sea Change In Philosophy
In 1967, a young philosopher, Richard Rorty, prepared an anthology called "The Linguistic Turn" which consisted of Rorty's own introduction together with many seminal articles in the analytic or "linguistic" philosophy which then dominated philosophy departments in American universities. The title of Richard Bernstein's book, "The Pragmatic Turn" (2010) is only one of many allusions to Rorty. Rorty and Bernstein are lifelong friends who studied philosophy together as undergraduates at the University of Chicago and who subsequently did their graduate work together at Yale. Borrowing in his turn a phrase from the philosopher Donald Davidson, Rorty described a "sea change" in recent philosophical thought resulting from the growing influence of American pragmatism. Rorty wrote: "If the change of which Davidson spoke is someday recognized as having occurred then Peirce, James, and Dewey may cease to be treated as provincial figures. They may be given the place I think they deserve in the story of the West's intellectual progress." Pragmatism as a "sea change" in philosophical thinking is the dominant theme of Bernstein's book. Bernstein in Vera List Professor of philosophy at the New School of Social Research, New York, and the author of many books on American philosophy.
The aim of Bernstein's is to show how pragmatism constitutes a "sea change" in thinking and why it is important. Broadly speaking, Bernstein sees pragmatism as changing markedly how philosophers view "objectivity", and "knowledge" by breaking down the Cartesian picture of subject-object, mind-body, that long dominated philosophy. Pragmatism shares the rejection of Cartesianism with two other broad tendencies in contemporary philosophy: the existential-phenomenological school practiced on the Continent and the analytic school dominant in the United States and Britain. Bernstein sees pragmatism at work in both of these schools. He further suggests that pragmatism may be a force in uniting these seemingly disparate trends in current thought.
Although it is not a history of pragmatism, "The Pragmatic Turn" offers an overview of leading thinkers with pragmatic tendencies beginning with the late 19th Century to the present. The book begins with Bernstein's lengthy Prologue in which he offers a bird-eye view of pragmatism and its history starting with Charles Peirce's formulation of the pragmatic maxim: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." Bernstein proceeds with nine essays, some of which had been published earlier. The essays are interrelated and cross-referenced. For the most part, the book makes a coherent whole rather than a collection of disjointed essays.
Still, the essays vary. Most are about individual philosophers, but perhaps the leading three essays, together with the Prologue are thematic. The first three essays deal with respectively with the three early American pragmatists, Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. The best of these essays is on Peirce, "Charles S. Peirce's Critique of Cartesianism" which explores Peirce's difficult writings and sets the stage for the subsequent pragmatic "turn" in philosophy. To my mind, Peirce is still the most challenging of the pragmatists. Bernstein's essay on William James' pluralism and ethics I thought somewhat short and sketchy. (Later in the book, Bernstein offers great insight into James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience.") Bernstein's essay on Dewey, "John Dewey's Vision of Radical Democracy" offers a brief summary of Dewey's political thought.
The middle three essays in the book begins with a consideration of Hegel and his deep influence on each of the American pragmatists even when they vociferously disagreed with him. I thought this a valuable essay because Hegel's importance still is frequently overlooked. Bernstein introduced me to two contemporary American thinkers, John McDowell and Robert Brandom, whose pragmatisms have strong overtones in Hegel. The following two essays "Pragmatism, Objectivity and Truth" and "Experience after the Linguistic Turn" are careful philosophical studies about how pragmatism attempts to revise the understanding of "objectivity" without falling into either absolutism or relativism and about how pragmatism saves and modifies the concept of "experience" in philosophy from what Bernstein sees as the excesses of a purely linguistic approach.
The final three essays examine contemporary philosophers who describe themselves as pragmatists and who have learned from the early American thinkers. Bernstein's essay "Hilary Putnam: the Entanglement of Fact and Value" examines the career and thought of this multi-faceted and ever-changing American philosopher who has become known for a pragmatism that combats what Putnam sees as relativism, as exemplified by Richard Rorty. Bernstein offers a long, difficult essay on the German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas and his attempt, which Bernstein deems unsuccessful, to combine pragmatism with Kant. The final essay deals with the late Richard Rorty and what Bernstein terms Rorty's "Deep Humanism". Rorty is probably the most influential late 20th Century American philosopher. Bernstein offers a personal overview of Rorty's career which culminated, Bernstein argues, in Rorty's 1979 book, "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature", a book that influenced me greatly when I read it years ago. Bernstein is critical of Rorty's idiosyncratic course and of his thought subsequent to that famous book.
Bernstein presents an erudite, thoughtful, well-written overview of what he aptly describes as a "sea change" in philosophy. He made me want to revisit many of the thinkers he discusses as well as to learn more about some philosophers I don't know, particularly Brandom and McDowell. I wanted to think more about Peirce and Hegel. The book probably will be of most interest to readers with a strong interest in philosophy and to serious students at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level.
Robin Friedman
In 1967, a young philosopher, Richard Rorty, prepared an anthology called "The Linguistic Turn" which consisted of Rorty's own introduction together with many seminal articles in the analytic or "linguistic" philosophy which then dominated philosophy departments in American universities. The title of Richard Bernstein's book, "The Pragmatic Turn" (2010) is only one of many allusions to Rorty. Rorty and Bernstein are lifelong friends who studied philosophy together as undergraduates at the University of Chicago and who subsequently did their graduate work together at Yale. Borrowing in his turn a phrase from the philosopher Donald Davidson, Rorty described a "sea change" in recent philosophical thought resulting from the growing influence of American pragmatism. Rorty wrote: "If the change of which Davidson spoke is someday recognized as having occurred then Peirce, James, and Dewey may cease to be treated as provincial figures. They may be given the place I think they deserve in the story of the West's intellectual progress." Pragmatism as a "sea change" in philosophical thinking is the dominant theme of Bernstein's book. Bernstein in Vera List Professor of philosophy at the New School of Social Research, New York, and the author of many books on American philosophy.
The aim of Bernstein's is to show how pragmatism constitutes a "sea change" in thinking and why it is important. Broadly speaking, Bernstein sees pragmatism as changing markedly how philosophers view "objectivity", and "knowledge" by breaking down the Cartesian picture of subject-object, mind-body, that long dominated philosophy. Pragmatism shares the rejection of Cartesianism with two other broad tendencies in contemporary philosophy: the existential-phenomenological school practiced on the Continent and the analytic school dominant in the United States and Britain. Bernstein sees pragmatism at work in both of these schools. He further suggests that pragmatism may be a force in uniting these seemingly disparate trends in current thought.
Although it is not a history of pragmatism, "The Pragmatic Turn" offers an overview of leading thinkers with pragmatic tendencies beginning with the late 19th Century to the present. The book begins with Bernstein's lengthy Prologue in which he offers a bird-eye view of pragmatism and its history starting with Charles Peirce's formulation of the pragmatic maxim: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." Bernstein proceeds with nine essays, some of which had been published earlier. The essays are interrelated and cross-referenced. For the most part, the book makes a coherent whole rather than a collection of disjointed essays.
Still, the essays vary. Most are about individual philosophers, but perhaps the leading three essays, together with the Prologue are thematic. The first three essays deal with respectively with the three early American pragmatists, Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. The best of these essays is on Peirce, "Charles S. Peirce's Critique of Cartesianism" which explores Peirce's difficult writings and sets the stage for the subsequent pragmatic "turn" in philosophy. To my mind, Peirce is still the most challenging of the pragmatists. Bernstein's essay on William James' pluralism and ethics I thought somewhat short and sketchy. (Later in the book, Bernstein offers great insight into James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience.") Bernstein's essay on Dewey, "John Dewey's Vision of Radical Democracy" offers a brief summary of Dewey's political thought.
The middle three essays in the book begins with a consideration of Hegel and his deep influence on each of the American pragmatists even when they vociferously disagreed with him. I thought this a valuable essay because Hegel's importance still is frequently overlooked. Bernstein introduced me to two contemporary American thinkers, John McDowell and Robert Brandom, whose pragmatisms have strong overtones in Hegel. The following two essays "Pragmatism, Objectivity and Truth" and "Experience after the Linguistic Turn" are careful philosophical studies about how pragmatism attempts to revise the understanding of "objectivity" without falling into either absolutism or relativism and about how pragmatism saves and modifies the concept of "experience" in philosophy from what Bernstein sees as the excesses of a purely linguistic approach.
The final three essays examine contemporary philosophers who describe themselves as pragmatists and who have learned from the early American thinkers. Bernstein's essay "Hilary Putnam: the Entanglement of Fact and Value" examines the career and thought of this multi-faceted and ever-changing American philosopher who has become known for a pragmatism that combats what Putnam sees as relativism, as exemplified by Richard Rorty. Bernstein offers a long, difficult essay on the German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas and his attempt, which Bernstein deems unsuccessful, to combine pragmatism with Kant. The final essay deals with the late Richard Rorty and what Bernstein terms Rorty's "Deep Humanism". Rorty is probably the most influential late 20th Century American philosopher. Bernstein offers a personal overview of Rorty's career which culminated, Bernstein argues, in Rorty's 1979 book, "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature", a book that influenced me greatly when I read it years ago. Bernstein is critical of Rorty's idiosyncratic course and of his thought subsequent to that famous book.
Bernstein presents an erudite, thoughtful, well-written overview of what he aptly describes as a "sea change" in philosophy. He made me want to revisit many of the thinkers he discusses as well as to learn more about some philosophers I don't know, particularly Brandom and McDowell. I wanted to think more about Peirce and Hegel. The book probably will be of most interest to readers with a strong interest in philosophy and to serious students at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level.
Robin Friedman
December 1, 2016
A wonderful introduction to pragmatism – subtle, reader friendly, judiciously built up. They don't teach a lot of American pragmatism in European philosophy departments I find. The New School sent me this book when I applied there. I didn't go in the end but am very glad I got this book out of it :)
He skillfully blends chapters that focus on a single pragmatist thinker with chapters that focus on themes such as Hegel and pragmatism. Throughout, he preserves his distinctive style, judging fellow pragmatists with great sympathy, bringing out their greatest achievements, but also without ever losing his critical distance. This is especially well done in the chapter on Habermas.
Bernstein is on top of the more metaphysical debates the pragmatists engaged in (see the chapters on Peirce, Brandom, Putnam) and he manages to skillfully interweave it with their political and ethical thought, showing continuities and resonances between these realms and grounding the abstract side of their project in more immediate realities. That he by and large puts the emphasis on the ethical and political befits also the introductory character of the work and makes it more accessible to the novice.
Yet it would be a mistake to think that the book is merely didactic. Here is one of America's foremost pragmatists, one of its foremost philosophers even, in an intimate dialogue with fellow great minds of his age. Thoroughly enjoyable and instructive!
He skillfully blends chapters that focus on a single pragmatist thinker with chapters that focus on themes such as Hegel and pragmatism. Throughout, he preserves his distinctive style, judging fellow pragmatists with great sympathy, bringing out their greatest achievements, but also without ever losing his critical distance. This is especially well done in the chapter on Habermas.
Bernstein is on top of the more metaphysical debates the pragmatists engaged in (see the chapters on Peirce, Brandom, Putnam) and he manages to skillfully interweave it with their political and ethical thought, showing continuities and resonances between these realms and grounding the abstract side of their project in more immediate realities. That he by and large puts the emphasis on the ethical and political befits also the introductory character of the work and makes it more accessible to the novice.
Yet it would be a mistake to think that the book is merely didactic. Here is one of America's foremost pragmatists, one of its foremost philosophers even, in an intimate dialogue with fellow great minds of his age. Thoroughly enjoyable and instructive!
December 26, 2012
Bernstein does a fantastic job of introducing the pragmatic themes present from Hegel to Brandom. Bernstein obviously has a very deep background in the history of pragmatism, and the individual thinkers involved in the movement. The best section, in my opinion, was the very personal final chapter on Richard Rorty, a close friend of Bernstein's for over 50 years (until Rorty's death). The critique Bernstein provides is extremely personal, and in a sense, moving. He knows Rorty personally, and that aids him in his task of explaining what made the Richard Rorty tick.
However, a proviso I want to add is that the final lines of Bernstein's book vindicate Rorty's overall project. Rorty wanted to be a conversationalist - a philosopher (not a term he'd like) who engaged in and stimulated conversations within his speaking community. Bernstein admits that even the harshest critics of Rorty cannot deny that he stimulated more conversation than any other philosopher of his time - which was precisely Rorty's goal.
Overall, this is one of the best books on Pragmatism I've ever read.
However, a proviso I want to add is that the final lines of Bernstein's book vindicate Rorty's overall project. Rorty wanted to be a conversationalist - a philosopher (not a term he'd like) who engaged in and stimulated conversations within his speaking community. Bernstein admits that even the harshest critics of Rorty cannot deny that he stimulated more conversation than any other philosopher of his time - which was precisely Rorty's goal.
Overall, this is one of the best books on Pragmatism I've ever read.
October 5, 2014
Much more technical than I expected. The middle 60% of the book might be best suited for philosophy scholars rather than laypersons like myself. Although a difficult read, I enjoyed the book a great deal. Besides learning a great deal more about the three founders of pragmatism (Pierce, James, and Dewey), my chief takeaway was the stance of Bernstein's pragmatism as being simultaneously useful in practice as well as unconstrained in regards to rigid dichotomies in thinking. If Philosophy (with a capital P) does still play a role in solving problems today, Bernstein's case that pragmatism is the most promising route seems well founded based on the arguments laid out (though my admittedly shallow knowledge of the more technical issues are undoubtedly not a basis for a professional's judgment).
Lastly, the closing chapter on Rorty was very touching. Despite Bernstein's disagreements with Rorty there is a clear sympathy for his philosophy.
Lastly, the closing chapter on Rorty was very touching. Despite Bernstein's disagreements with Rorty there is a clear sympathy for his philosophy.
May 12, 2015
A very inconsistent book. Excellent chapters on Peirce and Dewey, but rather weak ones on James and Rorty. Plus, there was no wrap up, which seemed weird. It just ended with some nice comments on Rorty.
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