Pragmatism and the Writing of History

The contributions presented in this symposium explore, from different perspectives, the relationship between pragmatism and history, that is, the empirical study of the human past. These connections run deep, and may be assessed on several counts. First of all, many pragmatist philosophers have devoted a great deal of attention to investigating the nature of historical knowledge and its relevance to philosophy. Classical pragmatists such as Peirce, Dewey and Mead laid a strong emphasis on pro..

Genesis and Geltung

Tullio Viola – One of the most relevant aspects of your intellectual career is your reflection on the link between historical and normative arguments with regard to values. This reflection goes back at least to your 1997 book The Genesis of Values, and may be seen to culminate in the methodological chapter of your 2011 book on The Sacredness of the Person, in which you talk about the need for an “affirmative genealogy” of values. As you have made clear many times (most recently in the article..

Review of Jean-Marie Chevalier, Peirce ou l’invention de l’épistémologie

The book under review tackles one of the most puzzling aspects of Charles S. Peirce’s philosophy, namely his conception of the relationship between psychology and logic. As Jean-Marie Chevalier notes from the very first pages of the introduction to his book, Peirce’s entire work is traversed by two strands of thought that apparently contradict each other. On the one hand, Peirce repeatedly insisted upon the autonomy of logic from psychology. Viewed from this angle, he was one of the most sign..

Histoires pragmatiques

Roberto Gronda & Tullio Viola – Your work is frequently referred to as “pragmatic history.” This notion, however, is by no means a new one: Polybius spoke of pragmatikê historia, Germany had pragmatische Geschichte in the tradition of Kantian anthropology. Can you tell us something about how you understand this label, and about your own encounter with “pragmatic history”? Simona Cerutti – Personally, I had quite an idiosyncratic introduction to pragmatic history, although this encounter was n..

Genesis and Geltung

Tullio Viola – One of the most relevant aspects of your intellectual career is your reflection on the link between historical and normative arguments with regard to values. This reflection goes back at least to your 1997 book The Genesis of Values, and may be seen to culminate in the methodological chapter of your 2011 book on The Sacredness of the Person, in which you talk about the need for an “affirmative genealogy” of values. As you have made clear many times (most recently in the article..

Einleitung zum Symposium über Michael Hampe, Die dritte Aufklärung, Berlin, Nicolai Publishing, 2018

Mit der Dritten Aufklärung, die zugleich titelgebend für den Gegenstand dieses Symposiums ist, nimmt der Zürcher Philosoph Michael Hampe eine Idee Hilary Putnams wieder auf. In seiner in Amsterdam gehaltene Spinoza-Vorlesung “The Three Enlightenments” hatte Putnam von drei Aufklärungsperioden in der Geschichte der Philosophie und der Kultur gesprochen. Die erste sei die in Athen mit Sokrates und Plato stattgefundene philosophische Revolution, die aus der Entdeckung des kritischen Denkens als ..