Richard J. Bernstein is a leading exponent of American pragmatism and one of the foremost philosophers of the twentieth century. In this collection he takes a pragmatic approach to specific problems and issues to demonstrate the ongoing importance of this philosophical tradition. Topics under discussion include multiculturalism, political public life, evil and religion. Individual philosophers studied are Kant, Arendt, Rorty, Habermas, Dewey and Trotsky. Each of the sixteen essays, many of which are published here for the first time, offers a way of bridging contemporary philosophical differences. This book will be of interest to scholars of philosophy and those researching social and political theory.

Contents Bryan G. Norton: Leopold, Hadley, and Darwin: Darwinian Epistemology, Truth, and Right Wouter de Been and Sanne Taekema: What Piece of Work is Man? Frans de Waal and Pragmatist Naturalism Nicholas Rescher: The Pragmatics of Betterment Claudio Marcelo Viale: Royce and Bernstein on Evil Barry Allen: Postmodern Pragmatism and Skeptical Hermeneutics: Richard Rorty and Odo Marquard Seth Vannatta: The Logic of Relevance in Independent School Education: A Pragmatic Critique Andrew F. Smith: Talisse¿s Epistemic Justification of Democracy Reconsidered Giovanni Maddalena: A Synthetic Pattern: Figural and Narrative Identity Review essay Mary Magada-Ward Engaging with Philosophy¿s ¿Limit-Defying Provocateur¿: A Review of Shusterman¿s Pragmatism: Between Literature and Somaesthetics

Table of Content Contemporary Pragmatism Volume 5 Number 1 June 2008 Catherine LEGG: Argument-Forms Which Turn Invalid Over Infinite Domains: Physicalism as Supertask? Joseph MARGOLIS: Wittgenstein¿s Question and the Ubiquity of Cultural Space Jay SCHULKIN: Cognitive Adaptation: Insights from a Pragmatist Perspective Jay SCHULKIN: Cephalic Organization: Animacy and Agency Lara M. TROUT: C. S. Peirce, Antonio Damasio, and Embodied Cognition: A Contemporary Post-Darwinian Account of Feeling and Emotion in the `Cognition Series¿ Rita RISSER: Industry and Quiescence in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature Lenart SKOF: Pragmatism and Social Ethics: An Intercultural and Phenomenological Approach Andrew STABLES: Semiosis, Dewey and Difference: Implications for Pragmatic Philosophy of Education Book Reviews Scott R. STROUD: Review of Cheryl Misak, ed. New Pragmatists. Jacob GOODSON: Review of Romand Coles and Stanley Hauerwas. Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary: Conversations between a Radical Democrat and a Christian.

Dani Spinosa takes up anarchism’s power as a cultural and artistic ideology, rather than as a political philosophy, with a persistent emphasis on the common. She demonstrates how postanarchism offers a useful theoretical context for poetry that is not explicitly political—specifically for the contemporary experimental poem with its characteristic challenges to subjectivity, representation, authorial power, and conventional constructions of the reader-text relationship. Her case studies of sixteen texts make a bold move toward politicizing readers and imbuing literary theory with an activist praxis—a sharp hope. This is a provocative volume for those interested in contemporary poetics, experimental literatures, and the digital humanities. Case Studies Jim Andrews Christian Bök Mez Breeze John Cage Andy Campbell Robert Duncan Kenneth Goldsmith Susan Howe Jackson Mac Low Erín Moure [Erin Mouré] Harryette Mullen bpNichol Vanessa Place Juliana Spahr Brian Kim Stefans W. Mark Sutherland Darren Wershler