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Contemporary Philosophy

Pragmatism: Peirce, James, and Dewey

The distinctly American philosophical tradition that judged the meaning and truth of ideas by their practical consequences for inquiry and action, from Peirce's founding maxim through James's and Dewey's divergent elaborations to its late-twentieth-century revival.

60-Second Review

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A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. Peirce's Pragmatic Maxim and Theory of Signs. Peirce's 1878 pragmatic maxim ties a concept's meaning to its conceivable practical effects.
  2. Peirce on Abduction and the Fixation of Belief. Peirce's four methods of fixing belief culminate in science's self-correcting pursuit of truth.
  3. William James's Pragmatic Theory of Truth. James defined truth as an idea's practical workability, a view famously attacked by Russell and Moore.
  4. James on Radical Empiricism and the Varieties of Religious Experience. James studied religious experience empirically while arguing that relations, not just things, are directly perceived.
  5. Dewey's Instrumentalism and Theory of Inquiry. Dewey treated ideas as tools for resolving problems, replacing static truth with "warranted assertibility."
  6. Dewey on Democracy, Education, and Growth. Dewey saw democracy as shared associated living and education as continuous growth through experience.
  7. Pragmatism and the Critique of Foundationalist Epistemology. Peirce and Dewey rejected Cartesian certainty, a critique later echoed in Quine's holism.
  8. Neopragmatism: Rorty and the Contemporary Revival. Rorty's 1979 attack on representationalism revived pragmatism but split successors like Putnam and Haack.

This module continues after "Nietzsche and the Critique of Morality" in the syllabus. If you haven't reviewed it yet, it may help set the context.

Key points

Visual module map

1Peirce's Pragmatic Maxim and Theory of Signs
2William James's Pragmatic Theory of Truth
3Dewey's Instrumentalism and Theory of Inquiry
4Dewey on Democracy, Education, and Growth
5Neopragmatism: Rorty and the Contemporary Revival

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Peirce, C.S. (1877). "The Fixation of Belief." Popular Science Monthly, 12, 1–15.
  • Peirce, C.S. (1878). "How to Make Our Ideas Clear." Popular Science Monthly, 12, 286–302.
  • James, W. (1907). Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.
  • Dewey, J. (1938). Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
  • Rorty, R. (1979). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Menand, L. (2001). The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.