UNLV PHILOSOPHY (PRAGMATISM, SPRING 2006)

In ordinary English parlance, to be “pragmatic” is to exhibit concern with everyday affairs and common practice rather than abstract speculation or theory. The meaning of philosophical “pragmatism,” though much more contested, has similar connotations, stressing experimentation and utility as tests of truth and ranking lived experience above speculation. Historically, pragmatism is a philosophical movement that exercised broad influence over academic professional thinking throughout the 20th Century, especially in the United States, its native home. Though Peirce originally developed it in the mid-to-late 19th Century, and it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the first quarter of the 20th pragmatism has been recently revived in a big way by numerous contemporary philosophers, literary theorists and social critics.

The most ubiquitous platitude concerning pragmatism is that it is to philosophy what jazz is to music: a distinctly American contribution. One question we will address in this class is that of whether and to what extent this platitude is true.

Another question we will address is that of what, exactly, we should take “pragmatism” to be, since it, like “analytic philosophy” and “post-modernism” is a term that has been used in numerous ways by numerous proponents. To what extent should we take pragmatism to be a theory of meaning? A theory of inquiry? A theory of truth? An account of social praxis? A theory of interpretation? A doctrine regarding the status of normative facts? Is there, in fact, anything amounting to a univocal central pragmatist doctrine, or do calls to pragmatism advocate little more than a set of priorities or attitudes?

This becomes a tough question whenever we canvas the litany of pragmatism’s self-professed followers. For, after all, what could a cheerleader for democracy like John Dewey have in common with a strutting little dictatorial bantam cock like Mussolini?

Thus, we are faced with the following questions: What is pragmatism? Is it any single doctrine at all? Where did it come from? And why doesn’t it go away? These are the concerns that will guide our readings and discussions in this class.

EXAMS AND GRADING

Grades will be based on two paper assignments and one in-class final, as well as and class attendance and participation, in accordance with the following formula:

Two 5-6 page papers (Topics to be assigned): 30% each

Comprehensive Final Exam (Study questions to be distributed): 40%

Attendance and Participation: Described below.

I intend the last of these three grading factors literally and seriously. So, show up and talk. If you don't like talking, talk anyway. I promise that talking will come to feel more and more natural and sincere to you the more and more that you do it.

Of course, people have to miss class from time to time. However, this must be the rare exception rather than the rule. I will grade attendance by taking roll daily in a way that I have not been inclined to do in the past. By the end of the second week I will assemble seating chart to help me do this. I will grade participation in the following manner: When I receive your exams, I will mark each with a minus ("-"), a check (" /"), a plus ("+"), or a double-plus ("++"), signifying the level of participation I have observed so far. A minus means just that. I will subtract 20 points from the student’s final point score. However, I ascribe minuses only rarely, usually to students whose level of attendance and participation leaves me unable to remember them from Adam (or to students who are consistently disruptive in class). In practice, this means that students will receive a minus if they miss more than six class sessions. A check designates adequate attendance and little else. It neither adds nor subtracts from the student’s final score. Pluses add 20 points to the students final point score, and double-pluses add 40. Point values will be added and subtracted, as appropriate, at the end of the semester. You are free to take issue individually with my assessments (in office hours or by appointment -- never during class). But, no wars of attrition or fishing expeditions, please.

To make daily role-taking fast and easy, I require that each student submit a "record page." This is to consist of a letter-size sheet of paper onto which the student has photocopied (and enlarged, if possible) his or her student m (or any other photo ID). This "record page" must be given to me at the end of the second week of class, i.e. Friday, September 9th (which is when I will start taking daily role). After this, students will be counted as "absent" automatically if they have not yet submitted a record page.

Our grading scale will be a standard curve throughout the semester:

A B C D F (with appropriate pluses and minuses.

90% 80% 70% 60% 50%

Given this grading system, it should be relatively easy for you to determine your own grade at any given point during the semester. To aid in this, whenever I return your midterm papers (always within two class sessions after their due date), I will include with it a personalized printout explaining your grade and your standing rip to that point in the course.

AGENDA

Week 1: Literary Roots of Pragmatism: Emerson, Cavell -- Fri. 9/2: Introduction (Goodman, pp. 1 ff.); Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Circles” (Goodman, p. 22 ff.); Stanley Cavell – “Thinking of Emerson” (Goodman, pp. 294 ff.)

Week 2: Classical Pragmatist Philosophy: C.S. Peirce -- Fri. 9/9: “A Definition of Pragmatism” (Menand, pp. 56 ff.) & "The Fixation of Belief" (Menand, pp. 7 ff.); "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities" (Menand, pp. 4 ff.) & “How to Make Our Ideas Clear” (Goodman, pp. 34 ff.) Lecture Notes for Week 2.

Week 3: Classical Pragmatism: William James -- Fri. 9/16: Th 2/7: “What Pragmatism Means” (Menand, pp. 93 ff.); "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth" (Menand, pp. 112 ff.); “Habit” (Menand, pp. 60 ff.) "The Will to Believe" (Menand, pp. 69 ff.) Lecture Notes for Week 3.

Week 4: Classical Pragmatism: John Dewey -- Fri. 9/23: “Theories of Knowledge" (Menand, pp. 205 ff.) & “Does Reality Possess Practical Character?” (Goodman, pp. 79 ff.) & “Experience, Nature and Art” (Menand, pp. 233 ff.) Also, Paper #1 Topics will be made available. Lecture Notes for Week 4.

Week 5: Classical Pragmatism: John Dewey -- Fri. 9/30: "The Need for Recovery in Philosophy" (Menand, p. 219 ff.) & “Education as Growth” (Goodman. Pp. 93 ff.) & “The Ethics of Democracy” (Menand, pp. 182 ff.) & "I Believe" (pp. 265 ff.).

Week 6: Classical Pragmatist Sociology: Jane Adams & George Herbert Mead -- Fri. 10/7: From “A Function of the Social Settlement (Menand, p. 273 ff.); “The Mechanism of Social Consciousness” (Menand, p. 288 ff.) & “A Contrast of the Individualistic and Social Theories of the Self” (Menand, p. 296 ff.) Lecture Notes for Week 6.

Week 7: Classical Pragmatist Legal Theory: Oliver Wendell Holms & Richard Posner -- Fri. 10/14: from "Lecture I: Early Forms of Liability," in The Common Law (Menand, p. 137 ff.) & "Lecture III: Torts-Trespass and Negligence," (Menand, p. 139 ff.) & from "Privilege, Malice, and Intent" (Menand, pp. 142 ff.); "The Path of the Law" (Menand, pp. 145 ff.) & from "Ideals and Doubts" (Menand, 170 ff.) & "Natural Law" (Menand, pp. 173 ff.) & “A Pragmatist Manifesto” (Menand, p. 418 ff.) (Also: Paper #1 due) Lecture Notes for Week 7.

Week 8: No Class (Out of Town) -- Friday 10/21)

Week 9: No Class (Nevada Day Recess -- Fri. 10/28)

Week 10: Contemporary Pragmatism -- Truth and Interpretation (Philosophical Background) in Carnap & Quine and Davidson -- Fri. 11/4: Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology"; "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (Also: Paper #1 returned and Paper #2 Topics Distributed) Lecture Notes for Week 10.

Weel 10 1/2: Additional Class Session (Quine to Davidson) -- Thur. 11/10 : Folks agreed in class that we might get together for an additional session to help pick up the slack created by our vacation-strewn semester. We can make it sort of a light session by finishing our discussion of Quine. Read “Ontological Relativity”. We will also watch and discuss a video interview in class between Quine and Davidson. (Yes, someone actually bothered to videotape such a thing.). Let's just meet outside our regular classroom and, if necessary, hunt around CBC together till we find a an available alternative. No lecture notes are available for this lecture, since we essentially read most of "Ontological Relativity" together in class.

Week 11: Veterans' Day Recess (Fri. 11/11)

Week 12: Contemporary Pragmatism -- Davidson (Truth and Interpretation) -- Fri. 11/18: "The Folly of Trying to Define Truth” & “Radical Interpretation Interpreted”, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" & Study/Summary page for Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" & "The World Well Lost". (Note that the above-cited study/summay sheet for Davidson will effectively serve as this week's class notes.)

Week 13: Thanksgiving Day Recess (Fri. 11/25)

Week 14: Contemporary Pragmatism -- Realism: Putnam, Hacking -- Fri. 12/2: “The Many Faces of Realism” (Goodman, p. 163) & "Fact and Value,” in Reason, Truth and History (Menand, pp. 338 ff.); “Three Parables” (Goodman, pp. 334 ff.)

Week 15: Contemporary Pragmatism – Realism to Politics: Rorty, Putnam -- Friday. 12/9: "Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism" (Menand, pp. 329 ff.) & “A Reconsideration of Deweyan Democracy” (Goodman, pp. 183 ff.) (Also: Paper #2 due.)