Pragmatism, Fall 2010 Department of Philosophy, City University Graduate Center Professor Samir Chopra (schopra@sci.brooklyn.cuny.

edu) Course Requirements: A weekly 500-word report on the assigned readings (60% of final grade) emailed to the class list by midnight the Monday before class. A final term paper (the remaining 40%); 3000-4000 words should be enough. Reading Schedule Background reading: Quine, W.V.O.1951, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism," The Philosophical Review 60: 20-43. Reprinted in From a Logical Point of View. Harvard University Press. (Compare with (HR) White: The Analytic and Synthetic, An Untenable Distinction; see too, (HR) Lewis: Pragmatisms Conception of the A Priori) Donald Davidson, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme", Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, Oxford University Press, 1984. Donald Davidson, A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge, Truth And Interpretation, Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, Ernest LePore (ed.), Basil Blackwell, 307-19. 1986 Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, Harvard University Press, 1997 (Sections 1-24; read Brandom's commentary as accompaniment) Donald Davidson, "The Myth of the Subjective",From Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective, Oxford University Press, 2001. Scott Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Vol 1. Princeton University Press, 2005, Chapters 13 Scott Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Vol 2. Princeton University Press, 2005, Chapter 16-17 August 31st - The Greatest Hits Jamess Pragmatism William James, Pragmatism, Dover, 1995 Henry Jackman, "William James", The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy (also at: http://www.yorku.ca/hjackman/papers/William_James.pdf)

September 7th: The Greatest Hits - James' Theory of Truth: William James, "Two English Critics", The Meaning of Truth, Harvard University Press, 1975 (essays VI, VII, VIII, IX also offer defenses of James' theory of truth) Bertrand Russell, "William James' Conception of Truth", from Philosophical Essays (http://libarts.wsu.edu/philo/faculty-staff/shier/russell.james.truth.pdf) (CCJ) Hilary Putnam, "James' Theory of Truth" Edward Moore, "The Pragmatic Theory of Truth", from American Pragmatism: Peirce, James, Dewey, Columbia University Press, 1961 William James, Pragmatism and Humanism, and Pragmatism and Common Sense, from Pragmatism September 14 - The Greatest Hits James Philosophy of Religion (HR) William James, The Will to Believe (also at: (http://falcon.jmu.edu/~omearawm/ph101willtobelieve.html) Henry Jackman, "Prudential Arguments, Naturalized Epistemology, and the Will to Believe", Transactions of the C.S Peirce Society, Winter 1999, Vol. XXXV, No. 1. , (at http://www.yorku.ca/hjackman/papers/wtb.pdf) Supplemental Reading: (CCJ) Hollinger, "James, Clifford, and the Religious Conscience" (CCJ) Rorty, "Religious Faith, Intellectual Responsibility, and Romance" September 21:The Greatest Hits- Peirces Pragmaticism (HR) Peirce, How to Make Our Ideas Clear Edward Moore, "Theory of Knowledge" and "Theory of Reality" from American Pragmatism: Peirce, James, Dewey, Columbia University Press, 1961 John Murphy, Peircean Pragmatism and Jamesian Pragmatism, in Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson, Westview, 1990 Supplemental Reading: (CCP) Misak, "Charles Sanders Peirce" (CCP) Pihlstrom, "Peirce's Place in the Pragmatist Tradition"

September 28: The Greatest Hits Pierces Convergent Model of Inquiry and AntiCartesianism (HR) Peirce, The Fixation of Belief (HR) Peirce, Some Consequences of Four Incapacities Supplemental Reading: (CCP) Wiggins, "Reflections on Inquiry and Truth arising from Peirce's Method for the Fixation of Belief" (CCP) Hookway, "Truth, Reality and Convergence" (CCJ) Hookway,"Logical Principles and Philosophical Attitudes: Peirce's Response to James' Pragmatism" October 5:The Greatest Hits- Dewey and the Reconstruction of Philosophy Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, Chapters I-V Supplemental Reading: Dewey, "The Influence of Darwinism on Philosophy" (http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/aboutcsp/dewey/darwin.htm) Dewey, "The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy" (http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Dewey/Dewey_1917b.html) Chandra Kumar, "Deweys Reconstruction in Philosophy Revisited", Philosophical Papers, Vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2009): 111-128 October 12:The Greatest Hits - Dewey and the Flight from Certainty Dewey, Escape from Peril, and "Philosophy's Search for the Immutable", from The Quest for Certainty Supplemental Reading: (CCD) Ruth Anna Putnam, "Dewey's Epistemology" (CCD) Richard Gale, "The Naturalism of John Dewey" (CCD) Mark Johnson, "Cognitive Science and Dewey's Theory of Mind, Thought, and Language" Peter Godfrey-Smith, "Dewey on Naturalism, Realism, and Science", 2000). (available at: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Epgs/PGSonDeweyPSA2000.pdf)

October 19: The Post-Analytic Turn - Quine, Rorty, Anti-representationalism John Murphy, "Pragmatic vs. Positivistic Empiricism", from Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson, Westview, 1990 WVO Quine, "The Pragmatists' Place in Empiricism", from Pragmatism: It's Sources and Prospects, Robert Mulvaney and Philip Zeltner (eds.), University of South Carolina Press, 1981 Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979 (Chapters 3, 4, 6) October 26th: Rorty's Neo-Pragmatism Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979 (Chapters, 7, 8) Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (excerpts on reserve);, Cambridge University Press, 1989 (chapter 1 plus introduction) Supplemental Reading: (HR) Richard Rorty, "Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism" (HR) Richard Rorty,Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism November 2nd: Davidson as Pragmatist? John Murphy, "Post-Quinean Pragmatism", from Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson, Westview, 1990 Richard Rorty, "Introduction" and "World Well-lost", Consequences of Pragmatism, University of Minnesota Press, 1982 Richard Rorty, "Pragmatism, Davidson and Truth," 1991a. Objectivity, Relativism and Truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Supplemental Reading: Bjorn Ramberg, Rorty, Davidson, and the Future of Metaphysics in America. The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2008. Bjorn Ramberg, "Post-Ontological Philosophy of Mind: Rorty versus Davidson." In Robert Brandom (ed.), Rorty and His Critics. Blackwell, Oxford and New York: 2000. November 9th: Putnam's Pragmatism and "Internal Realism"

Hilary Putnam, "Two Philosophical Perspectives", from Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Hilary Putnam, Pragmatism: An Open Question. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. Hilary W. Putnam, Pragmatism", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 95(3) Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, Edited by James Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. (Essay #1) Supplemental Reading: James Conant, Introduction, Realism with a Human Face, Edited by James Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. Rudolf Carnap, Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology, Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (1950): 20-40. Reprinted in the Supplement to Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic, University of Chicago Press, 1956. (available at: http://www.ditext.com/carnap/carnap.html) November 16: Putnam and the Fact-Value Dichotomy Hilary Putnam, The Collapse of the Fact-Value Dichotomy, Harvard University Press, 2004 (Chapters 1, 2, 6, 8) Supplemental: Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, Edited by James Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. (Essays 9, 10, 11) Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1981 (essays 5-9) November 30th: The Rorty-Putnam Debates Richard Rorty, "Putnam and the Relativist Menace", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 90, No. 9 (Sep., 1993), pp. 443-46, reprinted in Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 43-62. Hilary Putnam, "Richard Rorty on Reality and Justification", in Robert Brandom (ed), Rorty and his Critics, Blackwell 2000 Paul Forster "What is at Stake Between Putnam and Rorty?", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 1992, Vol. LII, No. 3: 585-604. Supplemental Reading:

Joseph Margolis, Reinventing Pragmatism: American Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century, Cornell University Press, 2002 December 7th: The Truth Debate Richard Rorty, 1995: Is Truth a Goal of Inquiry? Donald Davidson versus Crispin Wright, Philosophical Quarterly 45, 281300; reprinted in Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 1942. Donald Davidson, "Truth Rehabilitated", in Robert Brandom (ed.), Rorty and his Critics, Blackwell 2000 Akeel Bilgrami, "Is Truth a Goal of Inquiry? Rorty and Davidson on Truth, in Robert Brandom (ed), Rorty and his Critics, Blackwell 2000 Supplemental: Donald Davidson, The Structure and Content of Truth, Journal of Philosophy, 87(6), 279-328, 1990 Huw Price, "Truth as Convenient Friction", Journal of Philosophy 100(2003) 167190 Optional Sections: Wittgenstein and Pragmatism Robin Haack,"Wittgenstein's Pragmatism", American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1982), pp. 163-171 Russell B. Goodman, Wittgenstein and Willam James, Cambridge University Press, 2008 (skip Chapter 4) Robert Brandom and Analytic Pragmatism Brandom's precis of Between Saying and Doing: http://www.usyd.edu.au/time/conferences/epr/brandom.pdf Sanford Shieh's review of Between Saying and Doing: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm? id=15886 Robert Brandom, Vocabularies of Pragmatism: Synthesizing Naturalism and Historicism", in Richard Rorty: The Philosopher Meets his Critics, Robert B. Brandom (ed.), Basil Blackwell U.K., Oxford 2000, pp. 156-183 Legal Pragmatism

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Path of the Law, 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897) (at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2373/2373-h/2373-h.htm) (D) Richard Posner, Pragmatic Adjudication, (18 Cardozo Law Review 1 (1996) (D) Thomas Grey, Freestanding Legal Pragmatism; (18 Cardozo Law Review 21 (1996) (D) David Luban, Whats Pragmatic about Legal Pragmatism Susan Haack, On Legal Pragmatism: Where Does 'The Path of the Law' Lead Us? American Journal of Jurisprudence, Vol. 50, 71-105, 2005 (available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=997918) John Dewey, My Philosophy of Law, in John Dewey: The Later Works, Vol 14, 19391941, J.A Boydston (ed.), pages 115-122, (essay available online through Google Books). Supplemental Reading: John Dewey, "The Historic Background of Corporate Legal Personality." Yale Law Journal 35 (6): 655-73. Beryl Harold Levy, John Dewey and Oilver Wendell Holmes, The Pragmatic Approach to Jurisprudence, (at http://www.bibliojuridica.org/libros/1/470/29.pdf) Bibliography: Robert Brandom (ed.), Rorty and his Critics, Blackwell 2000 Robert B. Brandom, Between Saying and Doing: Towards an Analytic Pragmatism, Oxford University Press, 2008. (CCD) Molly Cochran (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Dewey, Cambridge University Press, 2010 (D) Morris Dickstein (ed.), The Revival of Pragmatism , Blackwell, 2006 William Egginton and Mike Sandbothe (eds.), The Pragmatic Turn in Philosophy: Contemporary Engagements between Analytic and Continental Thought, SUNY Press, 2004 Russell B. Goodman, Wittgenstein and Willam James, Cambridge University Press, 2008 (HR) Susan Haack, Pragmatism Old and New: Selected Writings, Prometheus Books, 2006

David Hildebrand, Beyond Realism and Anti-Realism: John Dewey and the Neopragmatists, Vanderbilt University Press. 2003. Louis Menand (ed.), Pragmatism: A Reader , Vintage, 1997 (CCP) Cheryl Misak (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Pierce, Cambridge University Press, 2003 Cheryl Misak (ed.), Pragmatism, University of Calgary Press, 1999 Cheryl Misak, New Pragmatists, Oxford University Press, 2009 Cheryl Misak (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, Oxford University Press, New York: 2008. Edward Moore, American Pragmatism: Peirce, James, Dewey, Columbia University Press, 1961 H.O Mounce, The Two Pragmatisms: From Peirce to Rorty, Routledge, 1997 John Murphy, Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson, Westview Press, 1990 Bernd Prien and David P. Schweikard (eds.), Robert Brandom: Analytic Pragmatist, Transaction Books, 2008 Hilary Putnam, The collapse of the fact-value distinction, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004 Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, Edited by James Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge University Press, 1981 Hilary Putnam, Pragmatism and Realism, James Conant (Editor), Urszula M. Zeglen eds., Routledge 2001 (CCJ) Ruth Anna Putnam (ed.), Cambridge Companion to James, Cambridge University Press 1997 Bjorn Ramberg, Davidson's Philosophy of Language, Wiley-Blackwell, 1991 John Shook and Joseph Margolis (eds.), Companion to Pragmatism, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 Scott Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the 20th Century, Princeton University Press, 2005 Edward Moore, American Pragmatism: Peirce, James, Dewey, Columbia University Press, 1961