Description
Book SynopsisPhilosophical Pragmatism in Context looks at human affairs and the condition of man from a purposive point of view. From this point of view it is a centrally significant feature of man that we humans are creatures possessing preferences, desires, wants, andabove allneeds. The possession of people's wants and needs is clearly a factual issue. What my needs arewhat I require in order to have a healthy, happy, and rewarding lifeis part and parcel of the conditions that define me as the sort of being that I am. Both what people happen to desire and what it is that they require of a healthy, happy, communally productive lifeone that engenders satisfaction to themselves and enlists the appropriation (and even admiration) of their fellowsis clearly something factual, something that can be determined by observation. Furthermore, it is something objectivepeople do not choose what it is that they need; rather, this is something that is determined for them by their mode of emplacement
Table of Contents
Preface – Introduction – Philosophy as Rational Systematization: A Metaphilosophical Perspective – Philosophical Disagreement and Criticism – Pragmatic Metaphysics (Explaining the Nature of Things) – On the Meaning of Life – Realism about Political Philosophy – Respecting Standards – Valuational Pragmatism – Pragmatic Theology – About the Author – Name Index.
