Pragmatism belongs—at least to a certain degree—to the Protestant-based reaction towards the economic, social, and political developments of the time in the US, and it is no coincidence that the pragmatists all came from religious families if not even theologian families. But these life conditions have changed over the course of the last century as much as the Protestant self-assurance has been questioned more and more. The question discussed in this book by international scholars is as to whether the possible modernity of pragmatism of around and after 1900 can still be labeled modern today, in the modernity (or post-modernity) around and after 2000. Has philosophy and philosophy of education found better alternatives? Have the alternatives of the time around 1900 proven to be better? Were the contemporary critics of pragmatism right? These questions are discussed in fourteen chapters clustered in three lager parts: The first part deals with pragmatism and modernity around 1900, the second part discusses contemporary alternatives to pragmatism and critics of pragmatism, and the third and last part of the book deals with the modernity of pragmatism today.
Intended audience:
• philosophers
• philosophers of education
• historians
• historians of education
• religious educators
• historians of sociology
• cultural historians
• political scientists
• postmodernists