Pragmatism, Perfectionism, and Feminism
ABSTRACT: I consider the revision of pragmatism by three leading neopragmatists: Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, and Cornel West. I argue that their vision of pragmatism lacks a teleology, though a teleology is suggested by Bernstein's description of a pragmatic ethos. I appeal to Stanley Cavell's notion of 'moral perfectionism' to suggest a kind of teleology that is available to pragmatism. Finally, I find the weakness of pragmatism done without teleology well exemplified in the exchange between Rorty and Nancy Frazer at Rorty's 1990 Tanner Lecture. Rorty's paper, "Pragmatism and Feminism," was meant to offer feminists some pragmatic strategies for improving their position. Frazer's strong response finds Rorty's suggestions only marginally helpful. I interpret her criticism of Rorty's suggestions to be that they lack something like a teleology. To me, this suggests that pragmatism can learn from feminism.
Pragmatism is revolutionary both in the sense of being a philosophy that is critical, destabilizing, and progressive, as well as in the sense of being a philosophy that, in the turning philosophical tides, has come back. Pragmatism was eclipsed in the first half of the twentieth century by analytic philosophy, in its various forms, but in the last decade or so pragmatism has returned in full force, and with an explicitly philosophical agenda. In this paper I will examine this new wave of philosophical pragmatism, sometimes referred to as neopragmatism, as it appears in the works of three of its leading proponents, Richard Rorty, Cornel West, and Richard Bernstein; and specifically, how it compares to, contrasts with, and contributes to feminism, as illustrated in the exchange between Rorty and Nancy Fraser that occurred as part of Rorty's 1990 Tanner Lecture.
A difficulty that arises in talking about pragmatism, new or old, is that pragmatism comes in so many forms. For Rorty, the most influential of the neopragmatists, pragmatism is primarily anti-philosophical. He defines its role in terms of negations: it is anti-representational, anti-universalist, and anti-foundational. One of Rorty's descriptions of what pragmatists do is, "pragmatists keep trying to find ways of making antiphilosophical points in nonphilosophical language." (1) For Cornel West, pragmatism represents a kind of return to philosophy, a return, that is, from a false to a genuine philosophy. It is a return to a philosophy that, at last, addresses the loci of our real needs. In his impressive, The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism, West describes the return to pragmatism as follows:
Now that we have a clear picture of the issues being discussed we need to talk about the philosophers. The first philosopher is William James born in New York City during the year of 1842. He was an American philosopher and psychologist, who developed the philosophy of pragmatism. He attended priv...
LEE, J. (2014, March 20). TED2014: NSA responds to Edward Snowden's video talk . .
Racial profiling is the most idiotic and arrogant thing you can ever do as a person. Usually the people who are affected by racial profiling are minorities, however, any person can be a victim of racial profiling. Some may think that racial profiling is non-existent, however, I would like to bring the situation into focus and show that it is still in existence and has been observed in the past and now in the current year. Although, more than fifty percent of the time racial profiling is conducted it is against a man or woman of color; an African-American in other words. There are instances where a white person can be a victim as well. Trying not to say that there isn't any person out there that is exempted from racial profiling, because there isn't a single person who is just exempted from this cruel method of decision making. In my essay I will talk about racial profiling and what it is, however, you can't forget about where it happens and of course why. Several resolutions will be discussed in this essay to alleviate this problem.
Before any argument can be made against racial profiling, it is important to understand what racial profiling is. The American Civil Liberties Union, defines racial profiling as "the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin"(Racial Profiling: Definition). Using this definition we can determine that racial profiling excludes any evidence of wrong-doing and relies solely on the characteristics listed above. We can also see that racial profiling is different from criminal profiling, which uses evidence of wrong-doing and facts which can include information obtained from outside sources and evidence gathered from investigation. Based on these definitions, I will show that racial profiling is unfair and ineffective because it relies on stereotyping, encourages discrimination, and in many cases can be circumvented.
Randall, Vernellia. “What is Institutional Racism?” Dying While Black. 9 Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Nov 2013.
William James, a philosopher in the late 18th and early 19th century shared his view on the common misconceptions of pragmatists account for the truth. Although I am only going to reinforce James views on a couple of these, there were in fact eight misunderstandings in his eyes. There is a passage written by James on his thoughts of what he called an automatic sweetheart.
John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as pragmatism. Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily. John Dewey was the third major figure in the classical pragmatist pantheon, whose wide-ranging writings had considerable impact on American intellectual life for a half-century (McDermid, D. 2017).
“To study the abnormal is the best way to study the normal” (William James). Psychiatrists never give up on any of their patients and always help anyone who asks for it. Psychiatrists have a never ending work schedule. Sometimes their patients call them even without an appointment because they are really struggling and they have to go talk to them. Psychiatrists also have to get at least eight years of school and an additional three or more years of an internship (“Career Information Center” 142- 43) . Psychiatrist must also have good communication skills. If they do not then their patient will feel like they do not care about them and they are not listening and the psychiatrists will be putting even more pain and pressure on them (Social Skills Training) . Even though psychiatrists must go through many years of school and training, all of their hard work is pays off knowing that they help people every day.
In James’ first essay, he tries to explain what pragmatism is with a story about a camping trip he took with a few of his friends. The friends began to argue about whether a man and a squirrel pass each other while going around a tree but do not see one another. Pragmatism seems to be a little confusing at first. I had to reread the argument about the squirrel and the human a couple of times to understand what the argument was about. I personally agreed with the group who said the man did not go around the squirrel simply because physically, he did not pass the animal while going around the tree. When James explained what the pragmatic method was, I interpreted it as basically trying to find correctness in both arguments depending on how you’re looking at it.
Someone who is willing to consider the pros and cons and take the necessary measurements to accomplish that goal with a logical reasoning. I believe that Lucy Stone fits the perfect definition of a pragmatist. Stone was determined on fighting for women’s equal rights. However, her life made her go through different transitions where she knew what her priorities were. Lucy was fully aware that marriage would take her eyes off the equal rights movements. Lucy gave her later to be husband Henry Blackwell plenty of excuses in order to avoid her marriage. Lucy stated that “Men were more immature than women of the same age”(22). After she had her child, Lucy Stone was still engaged during the cause however, she was aware she also had other priorities and she was unable to spend as much time as she wanted to fight for the rights of women. Instead, she took care of Alice. “After Alice’s birth, Lucy overcome by lassitude, retired from her strenuous speaking tours. With the help of the Blackwells she temporarily became a stay-at-home mother”(30). Lucy Stone was a natural leader who was stood up for equal civil rights without forgetting her priorities. Lucy Stone was able to adapt to her situations in life in order to still fight for what she
Hartmann, H. (1981). The Unhappy marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union. In C. R. McCann & S. Kim (Eds.), Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives (3rd ed.) (pp 182-201).
It is within man’s blood and nature to explore, and space is our next New World. Man’s first achievement in space travel was the launch of the Sputnik on October 4, 1957. For the next decades, space travel was roaring like a rocket, fueled by man’s desire to explore, man’s desire for knowledge, and man’s desire to beat his enemies. However, these impulses have died out as the well of government funding has been diverted to wars and debts, and the interest of the American people has been diverted to wars and debts. Amidst all these issues it is debated as to whether or not space travel is worth the money and the attention of scientists, particularly since humanity faces so many issues on earth currently. However, because of the past inventions, current services, and future benefits, space travel is indeed worth the money and attention of governments and people. It is within our hands to control man’s advancement, and space travel is the next venue to do so.
Moore, Brooke Noel., and Kenneth Bruder. "Chapter 6- The Rise of Metaphysics and Epistemology; Chapter 9- The Pragmatic and Analytic Traditions; Chapter 7- The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Philosophy: the Power of Ideas. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
Abrams 1604 - 1606. Peterson, Linda H. "What Is Feminist Criticism?" Wuthering Heights. Ed. Linda H. Peterson, Ph.D. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.
When we talk about education, we remember our teachers of elementary, middle and high school because they left their mark on our lives, and are who we truly taught things that even we , and we have to our knowledge, is that the main purpose of my philosophy educational. The basis of my educational philosophy pragmatism. The goal of education for pragmatists is the socialization of the individual and the transmission of cultural ideas of man to new generations. In this way, new generations have no need to repeat it step by step, the experiences of their ancestors (Riestra, 1970). The school must be active in developing critical thinking in the learner. This should not be a passive entity in the process of their education, you must learn to learn . The school must prepare students for this interaction with their environment that is always changing.