Pragmatism: A Living Tradition

FAIN: FS-50093-06

Regents of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001)
Russell Goodman (Project Director: March 2006 to April 2008)

A five-week summer seminar for fifteen college and university teachers on American pragmatic philosophy from its origins to the present day.

The purpose of this seminar, one hundred years after William James published his influential book PRAGMATISM, is to examine pragmatism as a living tradition -- to assess pragmatism's original appeal, and to understand why it continues to find powerful proponents (and powerful critics) today. The seminar will take place in the five weeks from June 17th to July 20th, 2007. Each week will have a distinct focus: the development of William James's pragmatism; Peirce and "the new pragmatism"; pragmatic pluralism; Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and pragmatism; and the philosophy of Richard Rorty. Rorty will join us as a visitor, along with three other prominent writers about pragmatism: Cheryl Misak (University of Toronto), Maria Bahramian (University College, Dublin), and William Blattner (Georgetown University).