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Peirce Vs Dewey Research Paper

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What we know today as pragmatism in the philosophical realm has its roots in American philosophy, and three individuals spearheaded its advancement, notably Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. Each of these philosophers helped pragmatism evolve into how it is perceived today. In this paper I will examine each philosopher’s contribution to the growth of pragmatism, arguing that Peirce provided the foundational beliefs for pragmatism and James took these beliefs in a different direction because of his interpretations of Peirce’s arguments, and that Dewey took James’ arguments a step further. In the following sections I will discuss Peirce’s beliefs first, and in the paragraphs after examine James and Dewey respectively, …show more content…

He said that logic was a process that led to inquiry, and then that process of inquiry would lead to community. Peirce puts emphasis on this community and societal system, because he believes that truth is something that can only be reached if it is agreed upon by all, in this case all the members of the community/society. He favors the scientific method of inquiry, like many empiricists, in which all must agree upon the truth. He favors this method over others, such as a priori, because with this method beliefs can be tested and thus their validity can be proven. In his paper he writes, “3. Everybody uses the scientific method about a great many things, and only ceases to use it when he does not know how to apply it. 4. Experience of the method has not led us t doubt it, but, on the contrary, scientific investigation has had the most wonderful triumphs in the way of settling opinion” …show more content…

Dewey was influenced by both Darwin and Hegel, and his philosophical beliefs reflect this influence. He focuses a great deal on experience, which already points his beliefs in the direction of empiricism. He speaks of experience in terms of what is experimental, active, and forward-looking, which appears to be a combination of empirical and pragmatic beliefs. Like his fellow pragmatic philosophers, he is concerned with the future, and how it will be affected by our experiences. He argues that knowledge is found in experience, and he wants to replace the former with the latter. Another way of saying this is that he wants to make practice intelligent, rather than make intelligence practical. Whereas he wanted to make practice intelligence, James wanted to make intelligence practical; so Dewey took what James wanted to do or talked about doing and actually did it. He also explains experience in terms of doing and suffering, arguing that suffering is essential to experience. This kind of breaks away from the pragmatic norms because pragmatists don’t usually spend a great deal focusing on

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