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THE AMERICAN PRAGMATISTS

The term “pragmatism” is arguably one of the most misunderstood terms/ideas
today. The street meaning is “do whatever works – whatever it takes.” Or a more
precise version: “action unencumbered by principle.” When we approach a decision
we often say things like: “don’t overthink it; keep it simple; this isn’t brain
surgery; ready-shoot-aim; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; if it ain’t broke,
break it; etc. etc.” We are all practical which we equate with pragmatic. Many
business people see being “pragmatic” as the antithesis of being
“philosophical”. Just the opposite!

Since Pragmatism, America’s only unique contribution to the long history of
Philosophy in the West, and, while a true innovation, it is well to remember
James’s titled his 1906 Lowell Lectures: “Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old
Ways of Thinking.” Peirce in his 1903 Harvard lectures proclaimed: Pragmatism as
a Principle and Method for Right Thinking.

Here are some of the leading Classical American Pragmatists, the subject of
Nahser’s dissertation in moral philosophy – relevant chapters 5 and 6: “Learning
to Read the Signs: Reclaiming Pragmatism for the Practice of Sustainable
Management.” (See also left panel.)


THE FOUNDERS OF PRAGMATISM– CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY .

While there are more members of the so-called Classical American Philosophers,
six of the best-known are Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, William James,
Mary Parker Follett, and John Dewey and Jane Addams. They all knew each other.
Peirce and James grew up and studied together at Harvard. James and Royce were
on the Harvard Philosophy faculty together for several decades. Follett studied
with Royce and James. Dewey had studied with Peirce during his brief academic
teaching at Johns Hopkins. And then Dewey worked extensively with Jane Addams at
Hull House. (See upper right panel.)

While not on the usual list, we feature Mary Parker Follett who became the first
person to apply pragmatism to organization management. Therefore, we consider
her the “Founder of Pragmatic Management” (see below.)

Alfred North Whitehead joined the tradition in 1924 with his appointment to the
Harvard Philosophy Department.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE

1839 –1914



Charles Sanders Peirce today is widely recognized by philosophers – but still
little-known publicly – as the most profound and original philosopher America
has produced. He is credited with introducing the formulation of pragmatism (and
semiotics) as a philosophy; America’s only unique contribution to the history of
Philosophy. James popularized it, and Dewey wrote extensively about its
application in education.  Peirce stated that every inquiry must begin with a
doubt (what he called a stance of “fallibilism”) and that the meaning of an idea
is expressed in the consequences of that idea – quoting the biblical “by their
fruits you shall know them.”

Peirce stated it formally: “Consider what effects, which might conceivably have
practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our
conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object.” This
definition became famously known as “The Pragmatic Maxim.

While a scientist, he challenged the prevailing “Gospel of Greed” of the day
which he saw resulting from a narrow interpretation of Darwin’s “survival of the
fittest.” His answer was “Evolutionary Love” – his landmark 1893 The Monist
essay – gained from his deeply felt insight that we engage in forming community
and caring for one another as one of the three drivers of evolution; the other
two being chance and necessity.

He famously said, watching how the debate over his pragmatic philosophy and
writings raged, that he would rename his philosophy “pragmaticism” a name he
said was ““ugly enough to be safe from kidnappers.” We are still attempting to
reclaim the original meaning of pragmatism…still not safe from misappropriation:
“do whatever works.” Ouch!

It has been said that Peirce has the distinction of having fewer disciples at
death than any other world class philosopher in western history – 4 by actual
count. Luckily for Peirce, one of them was William James. Josiah Royce and John
Dewey were two others, mentioned below.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


WILLIAM JAMES

1842 –1910



James Introduced the term “pragmatism” to the world in a lecture at UC Berkeley
in 1898 entitled, fittingly “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results.”
That is when he stated the much misunderstood definition of Pragmatism: you know
an idea by its “cash value.” ” The ultimate test for us of what the truth means
Is Indeed the conduct it dictates or Inspires.” True, but it too often has come
to mean: “Do whatever works.” A far cry from the original intent of
testing/putting values in action.

We all should have the courage to follow his practice:

“On the principle of going behind the conceptual function altogether, however,
and looking into more primitive flux of the sensational life for reality’s true
shape, a way is open to us...Plunge into an altogether other dimension of
existence from the sensible and merely ‘understandable’ world. The unseen region
in question is not merely ideal, for it produces effects in this world...Truth
happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.“

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


JOSIAH ROYCE

1855-1916

William James and Josiah Royce, “wrangling” as the Harvard philosophers called
it.

Josiah Royce was one of the few people in Peirce’s lifetime whom he felt really
understood what he meant by pragmatism. Indeed Peirce went so far as to call
Royce the only true American pragmatist. Like James, Royce was interested in the
pursuit of truth but unlike James he did not just look at what “worked” but how
we formed our ideas to begin with. Royce wanted answers to questions about
purpose, duty, and goals. So he posed questions like: what do we live for? What
is the ideal of life? His focus on duty led him to thinking about the virtue of
loyalty and this led into the central question of the formation of the Christian
community which he called the “Beloved Community”. Since he saw all philosophy
as the process of interpretation, he used the example of the early Christian
community attempting to interpret the meaning Jesus’s life, which led to the
formation of the “Beloved Community.”

Royce believed that “Every proposed reform, every moral deed, is to be tested by
whether and to what extent it contributes to the realization of the Beloved
Community…When one cannot find the ‘beloved community,’ she needs to take steps
to create it and if there is not evidence of the existence of such a community
then the rule to live by is: To Act So As To Hasten Its Coming.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




MARY PARKER FOLLETT

1868-1933

After decades of neglect, she is now recognized as “The Mother of Management”
and “The Prophet of Management. We consider her “The Founder of Pragmatic
Management.”

The most important person on this “History of Pragmatism” page, for our
purposes, is Mary Parker Follett for the simple reason that she was the first to
connect the practice of pragmatism to the practice of management. It was her
work in community development focused on group dynamics and vocational training
that brought her to the attention of manufacturers in America and England.  (She
was one of the first women to lecture at the London School of Economics.)

After her death, she joined what has been regrettably called “the invisible
women in the history of American Philosophy.”  But her ideas of management are
being recovered today by leaders of management theory who are often astounded to
read her work and find themselves merely repeating what she said.  The late
Warren Bennis, one of the deans of the “Human Relations” movement, remarked in
2003 that “Just about everything written today about leadership and
organizations comes from Mary Parker Follett’s writings and lectures.” Like her
familiar definition of management as “the art of getting things done through
people.”

For example, Bennis:  “Leaders are people that can express themselves fully.” 
Follett:  :  “A leader is a person who expresses most fully the spirit of the
age, large understanding, clear vision and steadiness of purpose.”  (We like her
definition!)

Feminist pragmatists (e.g. see right side panel on this page) find connections
with pragmatic philosophy throughout Follett’s work, particularly on inclusive
groups, integrative inquiry, and the importance of focusing on the “job” and its
context as a deeply relational activity.  She saw life as a “ceaseless
interweaving; ideas and experiences are woven into the tissue of my life.” “We
verified through the process of creating.” Her commitment was to “progressive
integrations,” continually creating the person and society.

This belief that ideas and situations “become true” follows James and Royce whom
she studied with at “Harvard Annex” –  Society for the Collegiate Instruction of
Women. Harvard later recognized the Annex as Radcliffe College from which she
belatedly earned a degree – summa cum laude…after 9 years of intermittent study,
including one year at Newnham College in Cambridge, England. (Her work by
today’s standards would easily have earned a PhD.)

Mary Parker Follett’s graduation picture from Radcliffe.1898.

Quoting James, she said he “tried to show us the relation between what he called
the inmost nature of reality and our own powers…my capacities are related to the
demands of the universe.  I believe that the great leader can show me this
correspondence that can quicken and give direction to some force within
me…whoever connects me with the hidden springs of all life, whoever increases
the sense of life in me, he is my leader.” (We often refer this as a “calling.”
See Presidio Graduate School story.)

One of her major efforts was to have business management seen as a profession
with a foundation of science and a motive of service for the “general social
good.” “Do you not think that the recognition of organization as the chief need
of business is rather interesting when we remember that conscious organization
is the great spiritual task of man?”  In this work, like a craftsman, we should
ask the question:  “How can I make of my life a whole whose beauty and use shall
be one?” 

She recognized that business needed to make a profit and saw nothing wrong with
that. But only that it should be seen as one of many motives :  “We all want the
richness of life in terms of our deepest desire. We can purify and elevate our
desires, we can add to them, but there is no individual or social progress in
curtailment of desires.”

This practice of management is diametrically opposed to the reductionist,
hierarchical, job efficiency management focus of  Frederick Winslow Taylor,
founder of “Scientific Management.”  His book with that title was voted in 2001
as the most influential management book of the 20th century by the fellows of
the Academy of Management.

How different our practice of management would be if Dynamic Administration –
the Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett had been the most influential
book…but there is still time and overwhelming need today to connect with the
“hidden springs of all life” she experienced and described, so that all life may
flourish.




JOHN DEWEY

1859 –1952



John Dewey had the most impact in his writings on education. In the book for
school teachers How We Think, he attempted to bring together reflective thought
with objective inquiry. (It was the only book he revised – 15 years later after
thousands of teachers had tested his educational philosophy.) He noted the
importance of the continuum of inquiry: “…a principle whose importance, as far
as I am aware, only Peirce had previously noted.”

That led to the succinct summary that education is “the continuous
reconstruction of experience.”

When asked what thinkers had an influence on him he replied: “I should state
explicitly that, with the outstanding exception of Peirce, I’ve learned most
from writers with whose position I have in the end been compelled to disagree.”

The rich story of the development of pragmatic inquiry goes on today
where of particular note are feminist philosophers who are embracing
the collective/community nature of inquiry stressed by the early
pragmatists and by Follett (above). Dewey concurred: “neglect of context is the
greatest single disaster which philosophic thinking can incur. (See bibliography
for further readings.) We turn below to the predecessors, since ideas, as Dewey
stated, come from a continuum of inquiry. What Jefferson called “the expression
of the American mind,” see below.




ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

1861-1947

Whitehead accepted a position at Harvard in 1924 at age 63 and retired in 1937,
remaining in Cambridge until his death.

Whitehead, while from England, is considered one of the Classical American
Pragmatists because, during his years at Harvard, he produced his most important
philosophical works, and these included his works on education, specifically
business education. He formed a close friendship with the legendary Harvard
Business School dean, Wallace Donham. Whitehead adapted his HBS lecture “On
Foresight” as the preface to Donham’s 1931 book provocatively titled Business
Adrift.

in his HBS lecture, Whitehead stated the task management education: “The
behavior of the community is largely dominated by the business mind. A great
society is a society in which its men (and women) of business think greatly of
their functions…There can be no successful democratic society until general
education conveys a philosophic outlook…Philosophy is an attempt to clarify
those fundamental beliefs which finally determined the emphasis of attention
that lies at the base of character. “

He concludes: “There is now no choice before us: either we succeed in providing
a rational coordination of impulses and thoughts, or for centuries civilization
will sink into a mere welter of minor excitements. We must produce a great age,
or see the collapse of the upward striving of our race.” Challenging words for
us all to help implement this philosophical education for the economic mind to
“think greatly of their function” and create a just and sustainable world.



PREDECESSORS TO THE AMERICAN PRAGMATISTS

Note: This section is a work in progress to show the unique American Experience
with Pragmatic Practice; demonstrations of the American “Arc of Pragmatic
Inquiry” at work at key moments in our history: Although not named as
pragmatists, Thomas Jefferson, Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Frances
E. Willard, Jane Addams and Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists show
the practice of pragmatism leading to Peirce, et.al. to articulate it.

RETURN TO TOP


THOMAS JEFFERSON

1743-1826 (July 4)

Imagined signing of the Declaration of Independence and presentation. July 4,
1776. Jefferson in red vest.

The Declaration of Independence of course is famous as the statement of modern
democracy. It is also important to us as a statement of American thinking.
Jefferson stated later in life: “Neither aiming at originality of principle or
sentiment, not yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was
intended to be an expression of the American mind.”

And we are claiming that the American mind at its best thinks pragmatically.
Specifically, the meaning of “pursuit of happiness” which is often overlooked as
idealistic, but had precise meaning for Jefferson: happiness serving others,
drawn from the Scottish Enlightenment and his teacher at William & Mary, William
Small. See: Declaration of Independence as a Pragmatic Statement. And a longer
video story: Thomas Jefferson’s Education as a Pragmatist.


ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

1805-1859



de Tocqueville’s visit to America was published as the landmark Democracy in
America in 1835, after extensive travels throughout the eastern United States.
He observed what he called our “habits of the heart” and was one of the first to
bring the idea and language of “individualism” to this country.

He begins Vol. II, Part I, Chapter 1 entitled “Concerning the Philosophical
Approach of the Americans” with this opening sentence: “Less attention, I
suppose, is paid to philosophy in the United States than in any other country in
the civilized world… I should say that in most mental operations, each American
relies on individual effort and judgment. So in all the countries of the world,
America is the one in which the precepts of Descartes are least studied and best
applied.” (This is referencing Descartes’s famous internal mental quest for
certainty: Cogito Ergo Sum: “I think, therefore I am.”)

However, he went on to observe: “Americans of all ages, all stations in life,
and all types of dispositions are forever forming associations,” Combining these
two deep beliefs of individual freedom and the impulse to form communities is
exactly what Jefferson intended the immortal words of the Declaration of
Independence: …life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – by which he meant
serving in the community life. (See “Thomas Jefferson’s Education as a
Pragmatist.” referenced above.) That is our hope: forming into corporate bodies
to serve the Common Good.




ABRAHAM LINCOLN


1809-1865

“If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then
better judge what to do, and how to do it. “A House Divided” June 16, 1858.



One of the major challenges in reflective thought and pragmatic inquiry is to
encourage and motivate busy people to stop and reflect. That’s because most
people are least interested in engaged in pragmatic inquiry when there is a real
pressing doubt which requires immediate
action.  And usually the larger the problem, the louder the demand for action.
That’s why the quote from Abraham Lincoln’s acceptance speech to be the party
candidate for Senate from Illinois, delivered at the Republican state
convention, is such compelling statement.  Everyone
knew that the country was in danger of being torn apart by civil war, and what
is the first thing that Lincoln says: stop and reflect.

The first sentence is also a statement of logic based on his study
of Euclid: e.g.  If this is true, then we would know what else is true.  It is
instructive to see how he uses the same method of reflective thought
and theory to craft his most famous and memorable statements such as “House
Divided” and his second inaugural address.  So when you’re pressed for time,
remember Lincoln’s words and engage in inquiry.

RETURN TO TOP


RALPH WALDO EMERSON

1803-1882

Ralph Waldo Emerson statue in Houghton Library, adjacent to Emerson Hall
(Philosophy Department) in Harvard Yard.

Emerson was a major voice of the Transcendentalists, that amazing group of
philosophers, writers and political activists including Henry David Thoreau,
Walt Whitman and Margaret Fuller. He was also William James’s godfather.

As a wildly popular lecturer and essayist, most collections of his essays start
out with that most individualistic essay “Self-reliance: Ne te quaesiveris
extra. (Do not seek for things outside of yourself.)”

Well, not quite because, while still focusing on ourselves and “the essence of
genius, the essence of virtue, the essence of life, which we call Spontaneity or
Intuition”, he famously said: “We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which
makes us organs of its activity and receivers of its truth. When we discern
justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage
to its beams.”

Quite a difference from the individualistic “habits of the heart” which
Tocqueville saw. And to see how ideas do develop in strange ways, consider that
Nietzsche was taken by this philosophy, which led to a more radical
individualistic direction, the ubermensch.




FRANCES E. WILLARD

1839-1898

Frances E. Willard statue in the Capital Statuary Hall, chosen by the Illinois
legislature in 1905. She was the first and only woman in the Hall until Rosa
Parks statue – seated on a bus – was added in 2013.

Frances E Willard may not be well known today, but in her time, she was widely
heralded as the second-best known woman in the world, after Queen Victoria of
England. She has unfortunately been too closely tied to the ultimately failed
alcohol prohibition movement and her leadership of the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union. However, she was early awakened to the rights of women – first
woman president of a US college, Evanston College for Ladies (later a dean at
Northwestern) – and that was her cause: “By nature I am progressive in my
thought. Dedicating my life to the uplift of humanity, I have entered the lists
at the first open place I found and have fought on as best I could…”

Later in life she called for work guided by “Scientific Philanthropy: we are
learning that this is not a cold and heartless phrase, but one warmed and
vivified by the very breath of God… We are all by nature narrow… But the modern
scientific method is to study the correlations of each subject taken up, and it
is of equal importance in the scientific study of reforms as opposed to the
helter-skelter method which they have been too often pursued.” One of her most
influential works was entitled: Do Everything, stating her
interdisciplinary/holistic approach to social reform. Couldn’t be a better
statement of Pragmatic Inquiry involving all stakeholders, the “Beloved
Community” of Royce.

While she never used the term pragmatism, she was prophetic in announcing that
reflecting on her lifetime of work had made her a “Gospel Socialist”, a perfect
statement of reflecting on the evidence of values in action. She went on to say
that: “It will take several generations to change the set of brain and trend of
thought so that in place of an individual we shall have a corporate conscience.”
Think about the debate we are having today about “socialism.” Her definition is
still instructive: “The world owes no man a living, But it does owe him the work
by which he may live in a helpful and honorable fashion.” How much pragmatic
work our generation and future ones still have to do.

VIDEO FEED:

Pragmatic Inquiry On The Road

Watch videos on youtube


AMERICA'S EVASION OF PHILOSOPHY - THE GENEOLOGY OF PRAGMATISM

Here are two books on this left panel on Pragmatism, American's only unique
contribution to Western Philosophy.  West's gives a more thorough historical
context, hence the title:  "The American Evasion..." of traditional
philosophical projects, and describes in much more detail the journey we tell in
the central panel on this page. He has been an inspiration and guide with his
geneology from Emersonian "creative democracy";  to Dewey's focus on  education
and the school as "a primary and most effective instrument of social progress
and reform";  to Richard Rorty's neopragmatism engaging in a cooperative
commonwealth and "replace step – by – step reform of the system we presently
have." West's concluding premise/promise is  that pragmatism captures the
American imagination and spirit in what he calls "prophetic pragmatism."   And
we are attempting to capture this spirit and practice in the Arc of Pragmatic
Inquiry.  ( See book note below and see "Academic Case Histories.")


A MARKETER'S SEARCH FOR METHODS TO PRACTICE SUSTAINABLE MANAGERMENT.

The practice of pragmatism can help marketers look beyond the context of a
limited competitive set and expand their horizon to "read the signs" of broader
social and environmental evidence and trends impacting their strategies.  As the
founding Pragmatists saw, it all begins with a "doubt."  Here's how the search
by Ron Nahser, then CEO of a Chicago advertising agency, to connect the
philosophy of pragmatism with the practice of marketing began.  The aim is for
all organizations - in business, government and civil society -  to realize they
are part of a "macromarket ecosystem" all interrelated and evolving so that all
life might flourish.  (See particularly the work of Mary P. Follett - right.)

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Jane Addams

1860-1935

Modern-day feminist philosophers such as Susan Haack (“Evidence and Inquiry:  A
Pragmatist Reconstruction of Epistemology") and Charlene Seigfried Haddock
("Pragmatism and Feminism:  Re-weaving the Social Fabric") were inspired by the
inclusive and pragmatic efforts of Jane Addams in her work with John Dewey at
Hull House on the west side of Chicago.  She was the first woman to win the
Nobel Peace Prize.



See more of the story on Jane Addams, John Dewey and the later Pragmatists.

 

Banner Image above:

A page from Harmonices Mundi by Johannes Kepler 1571–1630), a German
mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer and a key figure in the 17th-century
scientific revolution. Kepler used many of his interests including music  (one
of the Liberal Arts Quadrivium subjects along with Astronomy, Arithmetic and
Geometry) to help with his iterative approach to his scientific theories shown
on the page.  Charles S. Peirce concluded Kepler's developing the evidence
(without the help of calculus) that the planetary path of Mars is an ellipse was
one of the greatest feats of Pragmatic Inquiry in the history of science.

We are still wrestling with these questions about our evolving universe today.

Examples in History - Thomas Jefferson


Declaration of Independence: Our Founding Fathers as inquiring leaders used
pragmatism to draft a more perfect union. See more of this crucial story:
Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. For the crucial
importance of the role of education in Jefferson's life, below is the link to a
:20 draft video for a proposed conversation with the University of Virginia
Rotunda staff:

"Thomas Jefferson's Education as a Pragmatist"


Here the link to a review of Jon Meacham's "Thomas Jefferson" titled "The
Politics of Pragmatism."

 

 


PRAGMATISM AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, AND
POLITICAL ECONOMY - INSIGHT FROM OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR.

Supreme Court Justice and veteran of three terrible years fighting in the Civil
War. He was wounded three times, nearly died, and endured the deaths of many of
his closest friends.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) was a childhood friend of Charles Peirce
and William James, growing up in Cambridge and attending Harvard with them.
Together with some other friends they formed what they called the Metaphysical
Club where Peirce first introduced and debated his ideas about pragmatic logic.

While Holmes is not considered one of the philosophers of pragmatism – for
example, he rejected Peirce’s emphasis on mathematical reasoning as you will see
in the following quote -  he was there at the founding and he certainly ranks as
a practitioner. Here is a section from the opening paragraph in his classic
Lowell Lectures on “the Common Law”:

“The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience…The law embodies
the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and it cannot be
dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of
mathematics…In order to know what it is, we must know what it has been, and what
it tends to become.”  Here is a telling footnote on that page:  [Imagination of
men limited—can only think in terms of the language they have been taught.
Conservative instinct.]

He recognized just how hard this imaginative/pragmatic thinking is: “I do not
give a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life
for simplicity on the other side of complexity.”  We then reflect and learn
because as he also said:  "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can
never go back to its old dimensions."  Then after moving through the Arc of
Pragmatic Inquiry, we Begin Again.

P.S. Concerning social policy and the political economy, he also said:  "Taxes
are the price we pay for a civilized society."  We agree.

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