Pragmatism and Naturalism: Scientific and Social Inquiry after Representationalism

Abstract

Distinguished scholars evaluate the contribution pragmatism can make to a viable naturalism, exploring what distinguishes pragmatic naturalism from other naturalisms. They examine pragmatism's distinctive form of nonreductive naturalism and consider its merits for the study of religion, democratic theory, and as a general philosophical orientation. Intro; Table of Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction, by Matthew C. Bagger; Part I: The Classical Pragmatists and Naturalism; 1. Instinct and Inquiry: A Reconsideration of Peirce's Mature Religious Naturalism, by Michael L. Raposa; 2. Religious Apologetic, Naturalism, and Inquiry in the Thought of William James, by Matthew C. Bagger; 3. Deweyan Naturalism, by Philip Kitcher; Part II: Pragmatism and the Study of Religion; 4. Pragmatism, Naturalism, and Genealogy in the Study of Religion, by Wayne Proudfoot; 5. Language, Method, and Pragmatism in the Study of Religion, by Scott Davis Part III: Pragmatism and Democracy6. Reading Wayne Proudfoot's Religious Experience: Naturalism and the Limits of Democratic Discourse, by Jonathon Kahn; 7. Public Reason and Dialectical Pragmatism, by Jeffrey Stout; Part IV: Pragmatism and the Philosophy of Religion; 8. The Fate of Radical Empricism and the Future of Pragmatic Naturalism, by Nancy Frankenberry; 9. Nonconceptualism and Religious Experience: Kant, Schleiermacher, Proudfoot, by Terry F. Godlove; 10. The Oracle and the Inner Teacher: Piecemeal Naturalism, by James Wetzel; Contributors; Index