Pragmatism and Social Hope

by Green, Judith M.

• ISBN13: 9780231144582
• ISBN10: 023114458X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-08
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Since 9/11, citizens of all nations have been searching for a democratic public philosophy that provides practical and inspiring answers to the problems of the twenty-first century. Drawing on the wisdom of past and present pragmatist thinkers, Judith M. Green maps a contemporary form of citizenship that emphasizes participation and cooperation and reclaims the critical role of social movements and nongovernmental organizations. Starting with empowering processes of storytelling, truth and reconciliation, and collaborative vision-questing that allow individuals to give voice and new meaning to their loss, anxiety, and hope, Green frames cooperative inquiries to guide transformative actions. From this "second strand" of the democratic experience, leaders and participating citizens can help to shape a more desirable democratic future.In dialogue with Richard Rorty, Judith Butler, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Elie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, Cornel West, and other contemporary thinkers, Green defines the need for deeper understanding and fulfillment of the potentials of the democratic ideal. Drawing insights from Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, William James, John Dewey, Jane Adams, and other earlier thinkers, Green frames a pragmatist understanding of emerging realities and possibilities, growing wells of shared truths, multifaceted histories, and mutually transformative experiences of citizenship. Employing examples from America's complex history and from recent world events, Green locates four sites for effective citizen activism: government at all levels, nonprofit organizations, issue-focused campaigns and social movements, and daily urban living. Green shows how citizens can revive social hope and deepen the democratic experience by drawing on their own knowledge and developing their capabilities through inclusive civic participation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Pragmatism and Social Hope: Deepening Democracy in Global Contexts	p. 1
Why America and the World Need Deeper Democracy and Widely Shared Social Hope	p. 1
The Role of Public Philosophy in the Twenty-first Century?	p. 8
Public Philosophy, Pragmatism, and Social Hope	p. 12
Why We Must Reconstruct Rorty's Dream-Story and Map to Achieving Our Country	p. 15
My Pragmatist American Story and Map to Social Hope: Some Chapter Landmarks	p. 20
Achieving Our Country, Achieving Our World: Rorty, Baldwin, and Social Hope	p. 29
The Painful Beginnings of America's Twenty-first-Century Struggle for Social Hope	p. 30
American Stories and American Hopes: Rorty Versus Baldwin	p. 36
Social Hope and Forgiveness?	p. 38
Social Hope, Forgetting, and National Pride?	p. 41
Rorty's Democracy: Patriotic Dream, Moving Image, Leading Story, Civic Religion	p. 45
Intellectual Self-Transformation in a Time of Democratic Emergency?	p. 52
The Better Party for American Progressives to Join: Whitman, Dewey, Baldwin	p. 57
American Dreaming: From Loss and Fear to Vision and Hope	p. 60
From Stories of Loss and Fear to Vision, Hope, and Action	p. 61
American Civic Religion and Its Opponents: Rorty's Losses, Fears, Vision, and Hope	p. 63
Do We Need a "Socialist" Metaphysics and Pragmatist Philosophical Methods?	p. 71
Rorty's Transformative Vision: Intellectuals Rejoin the Reformist Left	p. 81
Recentering the Economic Issues: Rorty's Nightmare and the Dream Beyond	p. 85
Participatory Democracy and the End of Capitalism: "Useless" Ideals?	p. 89
Collaborative Storytelling and Shared Vision Questing: Lessons from Native America	p. 92
Hope's Progress: Remembering Dewey's Pragmatist Social Epistemology in the Twenty-first Century	p. 100
Why We Need Well-Grounded Social Hopes Now	p. 101
Beyond Ethnocentrism: Why We Need a Pragmatist Social Epistemology	p. 108
Reclaiming Dewey's Intercultural Pragmatist Epistemology	p. 116
Aiding Hope's Progress	p. 124
Choosing Our History, Choosing Our Hopes: Truth and Reconciliation Between Our Past and Our Future	p. 127
Are Knowledge of History and Hope Incompatible?	p. 128
Choosing Our History, Choosing Our Hopes?	p. 131
Rorty's Whitman: A World Without Sin and Knowledge?	p. 135
Rorty's Dewey: A World Without Truth?	p. 137
Rorty's American Black Box: A Substitute for a Pragmatist Social Epistemology?	p. 140
Remembering Complex, Painful Truths of History as a Basis for Shared Social Hopes	p. 143
A Pragmatist Path to Social Hope: Critical Memories, Deep Truths, Democratic Loyalties	p. 149
Conclusion: Only True, Shared Stories Can Restore Shared Social Hopes	p. 155
Trying Deeper Democracy: Pragmatist Lessons from the American Experience	p. 158
A Dialectical History of American Democratic
Theory and Practice	p. 158
Two Strands in American Democratic History: Representation and Direct Participation	p. 159
Experimenting with Democracy: Our First Postrevolutionary Generations	p. 162
Reconstructing America: The Progressive Era and the City Beautiful Movement	p. 168
The Struggle Widens and Deepens: The Interwar Years and Their Aftermath	p. 169
Winning and Defeating the "War on Poverty"	p. 172
Peacemakers and Anarchists: The Anti-Vietnam War Movement and Its Offspring	p. 176
The Trilateral Commission Strikes Back	p. 178
Participatory Democracy: Movements, Campaigns, and Democratic Living	p. 181
Participatory Democracy: A Useless Ideal for the Twenty-first Century?	p. 181
Rorty's Hero-Based Claim: Campaigns, Not Movements, as Frameworks for Living	p. 185
America's Historical Experience: Effective Campaigns Require Broader Movements	p. 187
Transformative Movements and Democratic Living in a Dangerous, Uncertain World	p. 191
The Continuously Planning City: Imperatives and Examples for Deepening Democracy	p. 194
Urban Schools of Deeper, "Second-Strand" Democracy	p. 195
Contemporary "Second-Strand" Imperatives for Democratic Citizen Participation	p. 198
Deepening and Expanding America's Cultures of Democratic Participation	p. 203
Some Urban Experiments: Institutionalizing Direct Citizen Participation in Government	p. 209
Creating Linkages: Government Partnerships with Nongovernmental Organizations	p. 215
Other Sites for Direct Citizen Participation: Courts, Campuses, Movements, Colloquies	p. 218
The Hope of Democratic Living: Choosing Active Citizen Participation for Preferable Global Futures	p. 225
Living with Hope, Faith, and Tragic Meliorism in the Twenty-first Century	p. 226
The Rebirth of Democratic Citizen Participation: A Global Story, a Working Hypothesis	p. 227
Educating for Dewey's Personal Democracy: Conflict Resolution and Citizen Voice	p. 232
Dewey on Deepening Democracy Through Citizen Participation: A Helpful Guide?	p. 238
A Conclusion and a Hypothesis for Living: Risking Our Hopes on Citizen Participation	p. 241
Notes	p. 251
Bibliography	p. 269
Index	p. 287
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