Pragmatist Truth in the Post-Truth Age: Sincerity, Normativity, and Humanism

258 Pages·2021·2.453 MB·English

by  Sami Pihlström

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Sami Pihlström

PRAGMATIST TRUTH IN THE POST-TRUTH AGE
Itiscommonlybelievedthatpopulistpoliticsandsocialmediaposea
seriousthreattoourconceptoftruth.Philosophicalpragmatists,who
aretypicallythoughttoregardtruthasmerelythatwhichis“helpful”
forustobelieve,aresometimesblamedforprovidingthetheoretical
basis for the phenomenon of “post-truth”. In this book, Sami
Pihlström develops a pragmatist account of truth and truth-seeking
based on the ideas of William James, and defends a thoroughly
pragmatistviewofhumanismwhichgivesspaceforasinceresearch
for truth. By elaborating on James’s pragmatism and the “will to
believe”strategyinthephilosophyofreligion,Pihlströmarguesfora
Kantian-inspiredtranscendentalarticulationofpragmatismthatrec-
ognizesirreduciblenormativityasaconstitutivefeatureofourprac-
ticesofpursuingthetruth.Jameshimselftherebyemergesasadeeply
Kantianthinker.
sami pihlstro¨m is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the
UniversityofHelsinki.

PRAGMATIST TRUTH IN
THE POST-TRUTH AGE
Sincerity, Normativity, and Humanism
SAMI PIHLSTRÖM
UniversityofHelsinki
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title:Pragmatisttruthinthepost-truthage:sincerity,normativity,andhumanism/Sami
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description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdon;NewYork,NY,USA:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2021.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2021022815(print)|lccn2021022816(ebook)|isbn9781316517703
(hardback)|isbn9781009048347(paperback)|isbn9781009047142(ebook)
subjects:lcsh:Pragmatism.|Truth.|BISAC:RELIGION/Philosophy
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accurateorappropriate.
Whathappenedtothetruthisnotrecorded.
JulianBarnes,Flaubert’sParrot

Contents
Acknowledgments pageviii
Introduction 1
1 James’sChildren?ThePragmatistConceptionofTruth
andtheSlipperySlopeto“Post-Truth” 12
2 ReligiousTruthandPluralismfromaPragmatistPoint
ofView 40
3 AroundorthroughKant?KantianTranscendentalPessimism
andJamesianEmpiricalMeliorism 69
4 TheWilltoBelieveandHolisticPragmatism 101
5 HowIsNormativityPossible?AHolistic-PragmatistPerspective 144
6 PragmaticAgnosticism–Meaning,Truth,andSuffering 178
Conclusion:PragmaticTranscendentalHumanism 218
References 226
Index 238
vii
Acknowledgments
Inasense,Ihavebeenwritingthisbookforalongtime,presumablyever
since I defended my doctoral thesis on the problem of realism in the
tradition of pragmatism a quarter of a century ago, in 1996. Since then
I have published several monographs, many of which examine topics
relevant to the present undertaking, such as transcendental pragmatism
and philosophical anthropology (Pihlström 1998, 2003, 2016), pragmatist
ethics (Pihlström 2005, 2011a), pragmatist metaphysics (Pihlström 2009),
pragmatist philosophy of religion inspired by William James (Pihlström
2008a,2013,2020a),aswellasourneedtoaddresstheevilandsufferingwe
seearoundusintheworldwelivein(Pihlström2014a,2020a;Kivistöand
Pihlström 2016). Only in this volume, however, do these prima facie
diverse philosophical topics come together, and only here do I think
Ihavebeenabletoweavetheminto(whatIhopetobe)acoherentwhole.
Some of the chapters of this book have a background in articles or
conference papers originally written separately over the past couple of
years. All the material from which the volume emerges has, however,
been significantly expanded and thoroughly rewritten, and insofar as any
copyrighted material is used, the appropriate permissions have been
obtained.
SomesectionsofChapter1arepartlybasedonanessaypublishedinthe
open access journal Pragmatism Today, the twentieth anniversary issue of
theCentralEuropeanPragmatistForum(2021),invitedbythespecialissue
editors Armen Marsoobian and Lyubov Bugaeva. Chapter 3 partly draws
on a paper titled “Kantian Transcendental Pessimism and Jamesian
Empirical Meliorism,” published in another open access journal, Con-
textos Kantianos,vol.11 (2020),aspecial issue featuringFinnishcontribu-
tions to Kant scholarship (thanks to Hemmo Laiho for the invitation).
AbriefandearlyversionofChapter5appearsinActaPhilosophicaFennica,
vol. 96, in a collection of essays titled Normativity, based on the 2019
EntretiensofInstitutInternationaldePhilosophie(I.I.P.),editedbyIlkka
viii