American pragmatism
pp. 363-386
in: Guttorm Flistad (ed), Philosophy of Mind/Philosophie de l’esprit, Berlin, Springer, 1983Abstract
Pragmatism originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1870s. Conceived in the womb of the informal Metaphysical Club, from seeds sown by Charles Darwin and Alexander Bain, it first saw the light of day in Charles Peirce's articles in Popular Science Monthly in 1877 and 1878, and burst full-blown upon the stage of educated public opinion through the lectures and writings of William James from 1898 onwards. Originally a Harvard-born-and-bred theory of meaning, truth, and knowledge, pragmatism was adopted by the Chicago School led by John Dewey, and transformed into a social and political philosophy which was eventually to be put in the service of the New Deal and the New Frontier. Under the aegis of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., himself a member of Peirce's Metaphysical Club, pragmatism made its debut in the field of constitutional law, where its hallmark can be found on Supreme Court opinions even to the present day. Meanwhile, back at Harvard, the purer strain of pragmatism continued its academic career through the teaching of Clarence Irving Lewis, and has been transmitted to contemporary philosophy by his brilliant successors including Quine and Goodman.
