Values and Powers: Re-Reading the Philosophical Tradition of American Pragmatism

223 Pages·2009·2.265 MB·English

by  Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński

VALUES AND POWERS
VIBS
Volume 213
Robert Ginsberg
Founding Editor
Leonidas Donskis
Executive Editor
Associate Editors
G. John M. Abbarno Brian G. Henning
George Allan Steven V. Hicks
Gerhold K. Becker Richard T. Hull
Raymond Angelo Belliotti Michael Krausz
Kenneth A. Bryson Olli Loukola
C. Stephen Byrum Mark Letteri
Robert A. Delfino Vincent L. Luizzi
Rem B. Edwards Adrianne McEvoy
Malcolm D. Evans Peter A. Redpath
Daniel B. Gallagher Arleen L. F. Salles
Roland Faber John R. Shook
Andrew Fitz-Gibbon Eddy Souffrant
Francesc Forn i Argimon Tuija Takala
William Gay Emil Višňovský
Dane R. Gordon Anne Waters
J. Everet Green James R. Watson
Heta Aleksandra Gylling John R. Welch
Matti Häyry Thomas Woods
a volume in
Central European Value Studies
CEVS
Emil Višňovský, Editor
VALUES AND POWERS
Re-reading the Philosophical
Tradition of American Pragmatism

Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009
Cover photo: (© Flickr)
Cover Design: Studio Pollmann
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-2745-9
E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-2746-6
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009
Printed in the Netherlands
The world is full of conscript minds
only they are in different armies,
and nobody is fighting to be free,
but each to make his own conscrip-
tion universal.
Santayana, 1935/1994, p. 553.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
PREFACE xiii

INTRODUCTION: Values and Powers in a Philosophical Context 1

1. Why Re-reading? 2
2. Why American Pragmatism? 4
3. Why Philosophical Tradition? 8
4. Value Inquiries as the Starting Point 9
5. What Are Values and Powers in the Present Work? 13
6. The Significance of Values-Powers Relation. Accumulation
of Values 15
7. Values and Powers in the History of Western Philosophy 19
8. Specificity of American Pragmatism in the Context of
Values and Powers 23

PART ONE
Proto-Pragmatic Approach to Values and Powers

ONE A Prelude to American Pragmatism. Transcendentalism as
“The Power of Thought and of Will” 27

1. Emerson’s Proto-Pragmatism in the Context of Values
and Powers 27
2. Emerson: “All mental and moral force is a positive good” 29
3. Great Men as Humans of Power and Worth 34
4. “The individual as a higher and independent power” in Thoreau 37

TWO Charles S. Peirce’s Pragmaticism and the Revaluation of
Thinking on Values and Powers 39

1. Peirce’s Scholastic Ontology and Philosophy of Values 39
2. Praxis vs. Theoria 45
3. Social vs. Individual 47
4. Signs and the Indirect Cognition of Values 50
5. Are Values Cumulative? 52
6. Peirce’s Ethnocentrism? 54

PART TWO
Pragmatic Approach to Values and Powers

THREE The Axiology of Pragmatic Metaphysics. The Powers
of Men in William James 59

1. Values and Powers in James’ Metaphysics 59
2. Values and Powers in Men 61
3. Powers Best for the Accumulation of Values 65
viii CONTENTS

4. Powers Best to Decide on What Should Be
Ameliorated 71
5. Powers Best to Decide Who Should Decide 74
6. Powers Best to Practice Pacifism 78

FOUR Loyalty to a Worthy Cause and Provincialism as
“Saving Power” in Josiah Royce 81

1. Absolute Pragmatism and Pragmatism in the Context
of Values and Powers 81
2. Axiological Dimensions of Loyalty 84
3. Axiology of Powers 88
4. Provincialism as “Saving Power” 90

FIVE John Dewey and the Might of Democratic Values 95

1. Some Reflections on Dewey’s Theory of Valuation 96
2. Dewey’s Axiological Objective Relationism 101
3. Is Democracy Necessarily Exclusive? 104
4. Education as Development of “Social Power” 109

SIX Democracy and Exclusion in Pragmatic Aesthetics
(Dewey, Shusterman, Margolis) 117

1. Democracy and Exclusion in Dewey’s Aesthetics 117
2. Freedom as Creation of Values 122
3. Democracy and Exclusion in Richard Shusterman’s
Somaesthetics 124
4. Joseph Margolis and Work of Art as a “Seat” of Values
and Powers 131

SEVEN Evaluative Character of Social Interactions in George
Herbert Mead 137

1. Evaluative Character of Acts and Gestures 138
2. Evaluative Character of Meaning 143
3. Conflict and Influence in the Context of Social Progress 145

EIGHT Richard Rorty’s Liberal Democracy and the Limits
of Cultural Imperialism 151

1. Liberal Values and Democratic Powers 152
2. Can Liberal Democracy Become Cultural Imperialism? 157
3. Solidarity of Who with Whom? Beyond Cultural Imperialism 161
CONTENTS ix
PART THREE
Quasi-Pragmatic Approach to Values and Powers

NINE Powers and Perfections in George Santayana’s
Abulensean Pragmatism 167

1. Powers in Aiming at Perfection 168
2. Santayana vs. Dewey on Values and Powers 169
3. Ontological Aspects of the Literary Work of Art in Santayana 172
4. Human and non-Human Virtues as Values Realized by Powers 183

Final Remarks 185
Bibliography 187
About the Author 197
Index 199