Skip to content
EntityQ3292620· pop 12· linked from 186 articles

Neopragmatism

Sign in to save

Neopragmatism is a philosophical position developed by the American philosopher Richard Rorty. It is pragmatist in that it is influenced by the classical pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, while also incorporating the insights of the analytic philosophy which ended up superseding that movement, hence the "neo-" in its name.

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • Background
  • Classical pragmatism
  • Early analytic philosophy
  • Later analytic philosophy
  • The later Wittgenstein and language games
  • Continental philosophy
  • Richard Rorty and anti-representationalism
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Neopragmatism is a philosophical position developed by the American philosopher Richard Rorty. It is pragmatist in that it is influenced by the classical pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, while also incorporating the insights of the analytic philosophy which ended up superseding that movement, hence the "neo-" in its name.

Neopragmatism was originally developed by Rorty in his influential book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979). In this book, Rorty argues that philosophy as traditionally conceived, i.e. as a sort of supreme court of reason overlooking the rest of culture, has become obsolete, having reached an impasse in analytic philosophy, and so philosophy must instead become a more interpretive and culturally relevant discipline if it is to have any relevance at all.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Neopragmatism” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.