Pragmatism

A concise, reader-friendly overview of pragmatism, the most influential school of American philosophical thought. Pragmatism, Americas homegrown philosophy, has been a major intellectual movement for over a century. Unlike its rivals, it reaches well beyond the confines of philosophy into concerns and disciplines as diverse as religion, politics, science, and culture. In this concise, engagingly written overview, John R. Shook describes pragmatisms origins, concepts, and continuing global relevance and appeal. With attention to the movements original thinkersCharles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Meadas well as its contemporary proponents, he explains how pragmatism thinks about what is real, what can be known, and what minds are doing. And because of pragmatisms far-reaching impact, Shook shows how its views on reality, truth, knowledge, and cognition coordinate with its approaches to agency, sociality, human nature, and personhood.