11 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American philosopher who has worked on pragmatism, philosophy of language, and American analytic philosophy.
Jane Addams's argument that ethics must be democratic and social — emerging from the experience of living with diverse others — rather than derived from abstract individual principles.
American philosopher who transformed philosophy of language with semantic externalism and the twin earth thought experiment, and later evolved from scientific realism to pragmatism.
American settlement house founder and pragmatist philosopher who developed an ethics of care and democratic theory grounded in direct engagement with immigrant and working-class communities.
American philosopher who developed instrumentalism — the view that ideas are tools for solving problems — and transformed philosophy of education with the view that schooling should be continuous with democratic life.
American philosopher and one of the most prolific philosophers in history — over 100 books — who developed a pragmatic idealism arguing that knowledge is a practical achievement of mind in interaction with a mind-independent world.
Richard Rorty was an American neopragmatist philosopher who rejected representationalist epistemology and argued that liberal solidarity is built through narrative and sympathy rather than foundational philosophy.
American-Israeli philosopher who developed somaesthetics — the critical study of the body as the site of aesthetic experience — and a pragmatist aesthetics that defends popular art forms.
Jane Addams's memoir documenting twenty years of life at Hull House — the Chicago settlement house she co-founded — as both autobiography and social philosophy.
William James's 1902 Gifford Lectures — arguing that religious experience is primary and theology secondary, that the 'fruits' of religious experience (how it changes the person) are the best evidence of its validity, and that mystical states are transient, noetic, passive, and ineffable.
American philosopher and psychologist — author of Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Pragmatism — brother of Henry James — who created pragmatism and the first American psychology laboratory.