The essays in this volume answer to anxieties that the pragmatist tradition has had little to say about justice. While both the classical and neo-pragmatist traditions have produced a conspicuously small body of writing about the idea of justice, a common subtext of the essays in this volume is that there is in pragmatist thought a set of valuable resources for developing pragmatist theories of justice, for responding profitably to concrete injustices, and for engaging with contemporary, prevailing, liberal theories of justice.
Despite the absence of conventionally philosophical theories of justice in the pragmatist canon, the writings of many pragmatists demonstrate an obvious sensitivity and responsiveness to injustice. Many pragmatists were and are moved by a deep sense of justice-by an awareness of the suffering of people, by the need to build just institutions, and a search for a tolerant and non-discriminatory culture that regards all people as equals. Three related and mutually reinforcing ideas to which virtually all pragmatists are committed can be discerned: a prioritization of concrete problems and real-world injustices ahead of abstract precepts; a distrust of a priori theorizing (along with a corresponding fallibilism and methodological experimentalism); and a deep and persistent pluralism, both in respect to what justice is and requires, and in respect to how real-world injustices are best recognized and remedied.
Ultimately, Pragmatism and Justice asserts that pragmatism gives us powerful resources for understanding the idea of justice more clearly and responding more efficaciously to a world rife with injustice.
Susan Dieleman is Assistant Professor (with term) in the department of philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. She specializes in Social and Political Philosophy, Pragmatism, and Feminist Philosophy. She has published essays in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, The Pluralist, Social Philosophy Today, and Social Epistemology.
David Rondel is Assistant Professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Reno. His areas of research specialization include egalitarianism, theories of distributive justice, Marx and Marxism, and American pragmatist political theory. He has published widely in these areas. His essays have appeared, among other places, in The Journal of Philosophical Research, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Contemporary Pragmatism.
Christopher Voparil is on the Graduate Faculty of Union Institute & University, where he teaches philosophy and political theory. He is author of Richard Rorty: Politics and Vision (2006) and co-editor of The Rorty Reader (2010). He has been a Fulbright Scholar and is founding President of the Richard Rorty Society.
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List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Perspectives on Pragmatism and Justice Susan Dieleman, David Rondel, and Christopher J. Voparil
Part I: The Pragmatist Turn To Justice
Chapter 1. Justice as a Larger Loyalty Richard Rorty
Chapter 2. Abnormal Justice Nancy Fraser
Chapter 3. Pragmatism's Contribution to Nonideal Theorizing: Fraser, Addams, and Rorty Christopher J. Voparil
Chapter 4. Empirical Approaches to Injustice: Elizabeth Anderson and the Pragmatists Gregory Pappas
Chapter 5. Ideal and Actual in Dewey's Political Theory Matthew Festenstein
Chapter 6. Justice in Context Ruth Anna Putnam
Chapter 7. Realism, Pragmatism, and Critical Social Epistemology Susan Dieleman
Part II: Resisting Oppression and Injustice
Chapter 8. Social Inequality, Power, and Politics: Intersectionality in Dialogue with American Pragmatism Patricia Hill Collins
Chapter 9. Pragmatism and Dreams of Justice: Between Radical Black Philosophy and Deweyan Democracy V. Denise James
Chapter 10. Contesting Injustice: Why Pragmatist Political Thought Needs Du Bois Colin Koopman
Chapter 11. Pragmatism, Racial Injustice, and Epistemic Insurrection: Toward an Insurrectionist Pragmatism José Medina
Chapter 12. An Aesthetics of Resistance: Deweyan Experimentalism and Epistemic Injustice Paul C. Taylor
Chapter 13. Setting Aside Hope: A Pragmatist Approach to Racial Justice Shannon Sullivan
Part III: Pragmatism, Liberalism, and Democracy
Chapter 14. Reconsidering Deweyan Democracy Hilary Putnam
Chapter 15. Dewey and the Problem of Justice Peter Manicas
Chapter 16. (What) Can Pragmatists Think About Justice? Pragmatism and Liberal Egalitarianism Robert B. Talisse
Chapter 17. A Pragmatist Account of Legitimacy and Authority: Holmes, Ramsey, and the Moral Force of Law Cheryl Misak
Chapter 18. William James on Justice and the Sacredness of Individuality David Rondel