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Analytical, neo- and other pragmatists (1950-)




(Often labelled neopragmatism as well.)



• Willard van Orman Quine (1908-2000): pragmatist philosopher, concerned with language, logic, and philosophy of mathematics.
• Clarence Irving Lewis (1883-1964).
• Richard Rorty (1931 - 2007): famous author of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.
• Hilary Putnam: in many ways the opposite of Rorty and thinks classical pragmatism was too permissive a theory.
• Stanley Fish: Literary and Legal Studies pragmatist. Criticizes Rorty's and Posner's legal theories as "almost pragmstism"^[3] and authored the afterword in the collection The Revival of Pragmatism^[4].
• Richard Shusterman: philosopher of art.
• Mike Sandbothe: Applied Rorty's neopragmatism to media studies and developed a new branch that he called Media Philosophy. Together with authors like Juergen Habermas, Hans Joas, Sami Pihlstroem, Mats Bergmann, Michael Esfeld and Helmut Pape he belongs to a group of European Pragmatists who make use of Peirce, James, Dewey, Rorty, Brandom, Putnam and other representatives of American pragmatism in continental philosophy.
• Stephen Toulmin: student of Wittgenstein, known especially for his The Uses of Argument.
• John Hawthorne: Defends a pragmatist form of contextualism to deal with the lottery paradox in his Knowledge and Lotteries.
• Jason Stanley: Defends a pragmatist form of contextualism against semantic varieties of contextualism in his Knowledge and Practical Interest.
• Arthur Fine: Philosopher of Science who proposed the Natural Ontological Attitude to the debate of scientific realism.
• Joseph Margolis still proudly defends the original Pragmatists and sees his recent work on Cultural Realism as extending and deepening their insights, especially the contribution of Peirce and Dewey, in the context of a rapprochement with Continental philosophy.

Neoclassical pragmatists (1950-)




Neoclassical pragmatists stay closer to the project of the classical pragmatists than neopragmatists do.



• Sidney Hook (1902-1989): a prominent New York intellectual and philosopher, a student of Dewey at Columbia.
• Isaac Levi (1930): seeks to apply pragmatist thinking in a decision-theoretic perspective.
• Susan Haack (1945): teaches at the University of Miami, sometimes called the intellectual granddaughter of C.S. Peirce, known chiefly for foundherentism.
• Larry Hickman: philosopher of technology and important Dewey scholar as head of the Center for Dewey Studies.
• David Hildebrand: like other scholars of the classical pragmatists, Hildebrandt is dissatisfied with neopragmatism and argues for the continued importance of the writings of John Dewey.
• Nicholas Rescher

Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear (ataraxia) as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood.

In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship, and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism. He argued that when eating, one should not eat too richly, for it could lead to dissatisfaction later, such as the grim realization that one could not afford such delicacies in the future. Likewise, sex could lead to increased lust and dissatisfaction with the sexual partner. Epicurus did not articulate a broad system of social ethics that has survived.