Blackwell Reference Online

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Because “pragmatic” often is used colloquially to mean realistic or levelheaded, a word about the philosophical meaning of the term is in order before turning to the intersections of pragmatism and feminism. The roots of American philosophy, of which pragmatism arguably is the best-known branch, often are located in the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau. The so-called classical period of American philosophy was later developed in the United States from the late nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century by figures such as Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, John Dewey, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William James, Alain Locke, George Herbert Mead, Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, George Santayana, and Alfred North Whitehead. I say “so-called” since the issue of who is included in the American philosophical canon has been contentious. Often it is restricted to the Anglo-American men on the list – Peirce, Dewey, James, Mead, Whitehead, and Royce – with a particular focus on the first three as the “holy triumvirate” of American pragmatism. In the past decade or so, however, the canon has expanded to include the distinctive contributions to American philosophy of white women and African-American men, especially Addams, Du Bois, Gilman, and Locke. Waning in popularity after the Second World War, American pragmatist philosophy experienced a revival in the 1970s, often credited ... log in or subscribe to read full text