Stuhr J.J. Pragmatic Fashions: Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd

Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2016. — 272 p. — ISBN: 9780253018847.In this book, I fashion and put to work one of these many philosophies. It is both expressivist—it views philosophies genealogically and as fashions of thought and personal expressions—and also pragmatic—it expresses a fallibilist, experimental, pluralist, relativist and radically empirical, and radically democratic, instrumental and practice-centered this-worldly sensibility. In keeping with an expressivist view of philosophy, this book is not an argument for a particular kind of pragmatism; rather, it is an expression and evocation of a pluralistic and pragmatic sensibility. It is an invitation and an opportunity to consider this expressivist attunement—an attunement that highlights the importance of multiple perspectives and awareness, the role of inventive imagination, and the need for shared cultural reconstruction.Introduction: Expressivism and Pragmatism.
Chance Vistas and Sincerity in the Cosmic Labyrinth.
Philosophies as Fashions.
Does Philosophy Progress?: Criticism without Critique.
Convergence and Difference: Immanent Pluralism.
It’s All Relative: Beyond Absolutism and Nihilism.
Expressions of Nature: Refashioning the Hudson River School.
Old Ideals Crumble: War and the Limits of Philosophy.
Democracy as Public Experiment: Beyond Mission Accomplished and Mission Impossible.
A Terrible Love of Hope: Toward Peace Before Death.
Absurd Pragmatism.
The Spring Collection: Intermedia Moralia; or, a Romance of Our Incoherence.