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James, Dewey and the Transformation of Peirce's Pragmatism
The Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy session at the 2014 American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division meeting.
William James first announced his commitment to pragmatism in a lecture at Berkeley in 1898, entitled “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results.” According to Russell Goodman, “Pragmatism emerges in James’s book as six things: a philosophical temperament, a theory of truth, a theory of meaning, a holistic account of knowledge, a metaphysical view, and a method of resolving philosophical disputes.”
The relative quiet following the publication of John Dewey’s “The Reflex-Arc Concept in Psychology” in 1896 belied the importance of this essay for the development of an explicitly naturalistic, transactional pragmatism. Both James and Dewey frequently acknowledged their debt to Charles Sanders Peirce and the series of innovations in logic and epistemology that he introduced starting with “The Fixation of Belief.” But what precisely did James and Dewey take from Peirce, what distinctive elements of theory did they introduce, and in what sense is there an integrated thread of thinking called “pragmatism”?
Completed papers or paper proposals that address this theme, situating it in terms of epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, or history of philosophy are sought. Comparative works that treat the theme against other philosophical histories, or that interrogate the transformation of pragmatism from other perspectives in American philosophy may also be tendered. Submissions from graduate students are welcome.
Submission Guidelines: E-mail paper proposals or completed papers to Kevin S. Decker at kdecker@ewu.edu by October 1, 2013. Paper proposal submissions should be between 500-800 words in length. The word limit for a completed paper submission is 3500 words. If you decide to include your submission as an e-mail attachment, please send it in one of the following formats: .doc, .rtf, or .pdf file.
Everyone who submits will be notified of their submission status via e-mail by October 20, 2013.