What Pragmatism Was e-bog

A history and exploration of this quintessentially American philosophy.F. Thomas Burke shows how the original "e;maxim of pragmatism"e; was understood differently by the two earliest American pragmatists, William James and Charles S. Peirce. Burke reconciles these differences by casting pragmatism as a philosophical stance that endorses distinctive conceptions of belief and meaning. In particular, on Burke's view, a pragmatist conception of meaning as encapsulated in the pragmatic maxim should be understood as both inferentialist and operationalist in character.Burke unravels a complex early history of this philosophical tradition, discusses contemporary conceptions of pragmatism found in current US political discourse, and explores what this quintessentially American philosophy means today.