X755
Section# 26245
Pragmatism
Elisasbeth Lloyd
Wednesday   10:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.

We shall explore the American Pragmatists’ views, concentrating on
their views about science.  Reading assignments will focus on the
original writings of Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and
George Mead, and criticisms and discussions of their work offered by
their contemporaries, including Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Frank
Ramsey, Hans Reichenbach, and Rudolf Carnap.

While the material of the seminar is primarily historical, our
investigations will center around the following interpretive and
evaluative aims:

To reconstruct and understand the positive theories of science and
inquiry  advocated by Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead

To understand and evaluate the pragmatists’ views of the aims and
methods of philosophy itself

To evaluate key criticisms of these theories offered by their
contemporaries

To consider whether Pragmatists’ views of science can provide
anything of value to today’s philosophers

William James, Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth (combined in one
volume: Harvard UP, 1978) ISBN:  978-0674697379 or 0674697375

Charles S. Peirce, The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical
Writings, edited by Nathan Houser and Christian Kloesel.
Bloomington, IN, University of Indiana Press, 1992, ISBN: 978-
0253207210 or 0253207215