Maria Baghramian (editor) - Pragmatism and the European Traditions: Encounters with Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology before the Great Divide

The turn of the twentieth century witnessed the birth of two distinct philosophical schools in Europe: Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology. The history of twentieth-century philosophy is often written as an account of the development of one or both of these schools, as well as their overt or covert mutual hostility. What is often left out of this history is the relationship between the two European schools and a third significant philosophical event: the birth and development of Pragmatism, the indigenous philosophical movement of the United States. Through a careful analysis of seminal figures and central texts, this book explores the mutual intellectual influences, convergences, and differences between these three revolutionary philosophical traditions. The chapters in this volume aim to show the central role that Pragmatism played in the development of philosophical thought at the turn of the twentieth century. The collection, in particular, goes some way toward uncovering the often neglected role played by Pragmatism as a mediator and reconciler between Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology through its distinctive understanding of language and experience as practical devices through which we interrogate the world and ourselves.

Maria Baghramian is Full Professor of American Philosophy at University College Dublin and current Head of School of Philosophy. She was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2010 and was Fulbright Scholar in Harvard in 2014. Her research and publications, supported by the Irish Research Council, focus on contemporary American philosophy and the topics of relativism and disagreement.

Sarin Marchetti is Assistant Professor at Sapienza Universit di Roma, where he teaches Moral Theories. He has written on ethics, metaphilosophy, Pragmatism, and the History of Analytic Philosophy. He is the author of Ethics and Philosophical Critique in William James (2015) and co-editor of Facts and Values: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Normativity (with G. Marchetti, 2016).

American pragmatism saw itself as the culmination of a process of naturalizing Kant and Hegel in the direction of an empiricism focused on selectional developmental processes of the sort epitomized by evolution and individual learning. This naturalizing, historicizing process was in many ways rudely interrupted by Russell and Husserl, each in his own way inventing something philosophy could be apodeictic about from its armchair. This fascinating volume provides a novel perspective on the familiar twentieth century opposition between analytic philosophy and phenomenology, by viewing those traditions through the mediating lens of their interactions with contemporaneous pragmatism.

Robert Brandom, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Whether through Husserls adaptations of Jamess psychology, Ramseys refinements of Peirces account of truth, Russells adaptation of Jamess radical empiricism, or the later Wittgensteins emphasis on concrete human life, two divergent traditions of twentieth century philosophyphenomenology and analytic philosophywere influenced by the pragmatists. The rich and varied essays in this collection break new ground not only in charting these and other pragmatic influences, but in helping us understand pragmatisms vitality today.

Russell B. Goodman, University of New Mexico, USA

Pragmatism and the European Tradition is an exemplary specimen of a new kind of collection of philosophical essays. It reviews, with a considerable range and expertise and fresh detail, the sources of doctrinal dissatisfaction involving intractable quarrels between analytic and continental philosophy (chiefly positivism and phenomenology) and the prospects of conceptual mediation by way of pragmatism. Quite a good idea. Thats to say, philosophical rivals must now demonstrate a measure of dialectical skill in reconciling once insurmountable doctrinal divisions. Repays a careful reading.

Joseph Margolis, Temple University, USA

This collection offers a scholarly and timely corrective to the prevailing narrative of early 20th-century philosophy. According to that narrative, analytic philosophy and phenomenology marginalized pragmatism and never engaged with pragmatism. The essays in this collection show that narrative to rely on either neglecting or misreading important figures. At a time when the very divide between analytic and Continental philosophy is being closely scrutinized from multiple perspectives, this book further complicates the story in productive ways.

Carl B. Sachs, Marymount University, USA

Edited by Willem deVries, University of New Hampshire, USA and Henry Jackman, York University, Canada

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com

4Toward a Metaphysics of Culture

Joseph Margolis

5Gewirthian Perspectives on Human Rights

Edited by Per Bauhn

6Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics

Diana B. Heney

7Sellars and Contemporary Philosophy

Edited by David Pereplyotchik and Deborah R. Barnbaum

8Pragmatism and Objectivity

Essays Sparked by the Work of Nicolas Rescher

Edited by Sami Pihlstrm

9The Quantum of Explanation

Whiteheads Radical Empiricism

Randall E. Auxier and Gary L. Herstein

10Peirce on Perception and Reasoning

From Icons to Logic

Edited by Kathleen A. Hull and Richard Kenneth Atkins

11Pierces Speculative Grammar

Logic as Semiotics

Francesco Bellucci

12Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Nature of Philosophy

Scott F. Aikin and Robert B. Talisse

13Pragmatism and the European Traditions

Encounters with Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology Before the Great Divide

Edited by Maria Baghramian and Sarin Marchetti

Edited by Maria Baghramian and Sarin Marchetti

First published 2018

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