American Pragmatism

Pragmatism is the homegrown American philosophical tradition that treats ideas as tools for action rather than mirrors of reality, and this course traces how that move reshapes thinking about truth, democracy, ethics, and education. You spend roughly two-thirds of the semester working through James and Dewey (with Emerson as the precursor), then read Rorty, West, and Posner to see what survives the jump into contemporary debate. Expect close reading of primary texts, regular quizzes and homework, two midterms, and a final — the payoff being a working philosophical vocabulary that connects directly to literary theory, political thought, and the rest of the AMER curriculum.