Pragmatic Metaphysics: A Pathway for the Future

Abstract

Classical American Pragmatism embodies a unique paradigmatic structure which offers a powerful tool for moving beyond a welter of traditional alternatives and dilemmas embedded in the philosophic tradition and pervasively operative even today, either explicitly or implicitly, in what is currently considered “cutting edge” philosophy. The present paper will explore the way pragmatism offers a novel understanding of the nature and “worth” of metaphysics, providing a reorientation for uniting the insights of traditional speculative philosophy with some of the contemporary recognitions of its limitation. This pragmatic understanding of the nature of metaphysics, and indeed of human experience and knowledge in general as well as the cosmos in which it is embedded, has important implications both for contemporary attempts to “situate” metaphysics in the context of philosophic inquiry and for contemporary attempts to come to grips with the full significance and uniqueness of Classical American pragmatism.