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Undercutting the Realism-Irrealism Debate: John Dewey and the Neo-Pragmatists

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In current years there has been a resurgence of interest in pragmatism, particularly that of John Dewey, William James, and Charles S. Peirce. Pragmatism has been embraced as a individually American via media, capable of bridging the contemporary divide between philosophy-as-cultural-criticism and philosophy-as-fundamental science. Indeed, the avowal by positive prominent philosophers of pragmatic commitments has been so widespread as to earn them the title of "neo-pragmatists."

On one central issue, thus, the interpretations by these philosophers of traditional pragmatists have served to place them in opposing camps. This is the issue of whether the views on truth and reality by these "classical" pragmatists evaluate them to be realists or irrealists, and whether these views could legitimately serve as foundations for contemporary "neo-pragmatism." For example, two prominent neo-pragmatists, Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty, have taken quite opposite stands on this issue. Rorty derives from classical pragmatism a decidedly irrealistic position while Putnam's is markedly realistic.