Pragmatism's Advantage: American and European Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780804770460)

This book addresses the rift between major philosophical factions in the United States, which the author describes as a "philosophically becalmed" three-legged creature made up of analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, and pragmatism. Joseph Margolis offers a modified pragmatism as the best way out of this stalemate. Whether he is examining Heidegger or rethinking the foibles of Dewey, Rorty, and Peirce, much of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western philosophy comes into play as Margolis presents his history of philosophy's evolution and defends his views. He does not, however, mean for philosophy to turn to the pragmatism of yore or even to its revival in the 1970s. Rather, he finds in recent approaches to pragmatism a middle ground between analytic philosophy's scientism (and its disinterest in analyzing human nature)and continental philosophy's reliance on attributing transcendental powers to mere mortals.

Author: Joseph Margolis
ISBN-10: 0804770468
ISBN-13: 9780804770460
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/29/2010
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2010
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2010 pg. 4