Idealism and Pragmatism

This book explores the complex relationship between the philosophical schools of idealism and pragmatism. Idealism is the older tradition with roots in Plato and Platonism and has been developed in a myriad of forms. At heart it holds that reality is either mind-like or is contained in the mind. Pragmatism is a newer school traceable to the work of philosophers such as C. S. Peirce and William James in the mid-nineteenth century. It offers a distinctive account of meaning knowledge and metaphysics which stresses our place as agents within the world. While these two schools have often been set at odds with one another it is increasingly recognized that idealism and pragmatism share some important common ground and that their respective histories have been intertwined. The contributions to this volume by leading international scholars put these debates in a new light by studying the interrelation across a range of thinkers and issues including Kant Schelling Hegel Royce Renouvier and Collingwood on the one side and Peirce James Dewey and Brandom on the other. This book was first published as a special issue of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy. . Language: English