The Significance of Joseph Margolis to Late 20th and Early 21st Century Pragmatism

What is it about?

Joseph Margolis recently died. He was an interesting pragmatist philosopher. His interests were wide, including aesthetics, anthropological diversity and history, the diversity of cognitive orientations and objectivity without foundations. Margolis embraces science and naturalism without reductionism. His pragmatism is close to James’ perspectivism and his strength is his attempt to reconcile positions and his fairness towards others as he tries to wedge his pragmatist position amid others. He is a naturalist without being a reductionist. But he celebrates the subjective stance of James, and downplayed the communal sense of Peirce and Dewey so vital to epistemic advances.

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