Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
nineteenth-century investigations by which chemists solved the problems of
stereochemistry were pragmatic
2
rather than theoretical (Ramberg
2001
). Clevis
Headley (
2013
) convincingly argued that features that distinguish philosophical
Pragmatism from other approaches derive directly from Peirce
'
s deep experience in
chemical-laboratory practice.
Peirce is now recognized as one of the most original and significant thinkers that
America has produced (Moore and Robin
1994
, ix). Philosopher and educational
leader John Dewey (1860-1952) was a prominent exponent of philosophical Prag-
matism during the 1920s and 1930s, but that mode of thought became less fash-
ionable during the ascendancy of analytical philosophy in the 1950s and 1960s.
Richard Rorty (1931-2007) and Hilary Putnam (b. 1926) sparked a revival of
interest in Pragmatism in the last quarter of the twentieth century. This chapter
aims to show that Pragmatism is relevant to current problems in philosophy of
chemistry. After introducing some main themes of Pragmatism and aspects of
current philosophy of chemistry we will return to Searle
s question.
'
6.2 Philosophy as Un-modern
Peirce did not produce a comprehensive summary of his thought, but in the early
1940s John Dewey drafted a topic that reviewed some main points of Pragmatism.
Unfortunately, Dewey misplaced his nearly-completed manuscript. That work was
recently found, edited, and published (Dewey
2012
). In it, Dewey vigorously
criticized other types of mid-twentieth-century philosophy claiming that obsolete
concepts, distinctions, and problems remain imbedded in contemporary thought—
even though results and practices both of science and of philosophy clearly require
otherwise. Following Peirce, Dewey stressed the important fact that, necessarily,
human activities are
socially
located—therefore all philosophical doctrines
are influenced by the cultures in which they originate. Dewey called much of
mid-twentieth-century philosophy “
un-modern”
since it had failed to recognize
that basic concepts of the Western philosophical tradition had been formulated
under assumptions that we now know to have been wrong. When established
cultural patterns are challenged by technological change or external influence,
new philosophical approaches may emerge—as they did in Classical Greece,
Medieval France, and Renaissance Europe. However, even such major conceptual
innovations are generally framed, considered, and discussed in terms of categories
originally developed for other purposes. Such conservatism often leads to misun-
derstanding—and to distortions which are difficult to identify and to remedy.
The dichotomies that abound in philosophy—subject/object, individual/property,
contemplation/action, mind/body, essential/accidental, fixed/changeable, theory/
practice—generally identify mere sections of some continuous variation—parts
2
This word (un-capitalized) refers to a practical attitude rather than to Peirce
s philosophical
'
approach (capitalized here).
