The Place of Logic in Pragmatism

Abstract

This paper argues that the tendency in contemporary discussion to overlook the logical roots of pragmatistic philosophy is a symptom of taking language as a universal medium of expression. My thesis is that the two presuppositions concerning the role of logic in pragmatism, universalism and its denial of calculism, delineate two kinds of pragmatisms, pragmatism and pragmaticism. I conclude that the latter, which was Peirce’s original formulation, is methodologically the more tolerant of the two and hence embraces pluralism over and above pragmatism.