Arapca yazan mantikcilar uzerine degerli arastirmalari olan Pittsburgh Universitesi emekli ogreti... more Arapca yazan mantikcilar uzerine degerli arastirmalari olan Pittsburgh Universitesi emekli ogretim uyesi Prof. Dr. Nicholas Rescher ile yapilmis olan soylesidir.
As we have discussed elsewhere, Franz Boas and John Dewey were intellectual and political allies ... more As we have discussed elsewhere, Franz Boas and John Dewey were intellectual and political allies at Columbia University for over thirty years.1 Dewey advocated for an increased role of anthropology (and other sciences) for philosophical insight, and he often used anthropological knowledge as a starting point for his ethics and politics, including such knowledge as learned from Boas. We hold that Boas and Dewey shared a common core understanding of human global and evolutionary diversity, and that this shared understanding itself forms a core component of their progressive projects. However, with regard to the problem of racism in the United States, Boas and Dewey had different engagements. Boas made the questioning of scientific racism a central feature of American anthropology, while Dewey barely addressed the problem in his writing.2 Nonetheless, as far as political activism is concerned, both Boas and Dewey were involved in the NAACP and pushed for political amelioration of social inequality through education and civil rights. In what follows, we examine the intellectual milieu of Boas and Dewey in order to problematize the ideal and idealized relationship between critical scholarship and socio-political engagement with race. We aim to elucidate part of the socio-cultural context in which much scholarship engages the problem of racism—both in the past and today. In this paper, we first describe how a general anthropological understanding of human global-evolutionary diversity is a significant aspect of the scholarship of both Boas and Dewey. We then briefly trace their engagements with racism in the United States, after which we analyze the socio-cultural factors that limited the anti-racism of Boas and Dewey. We propose, finally, a pragmatist anthropological approach to the question of race-building upon existing philosophical and anthropological studies.
This article argues that John Dewey, influenced by Franz Boas and early American anthropology, ma... more This article argues that John Dewey, influenced by Franz Boas and early American anthropology, made the first attempt to understand nature from a modern anthropological perspective. We first explain how Boas helped develop the culture concept, which played a key role in the development Dewey’s own understanding of experience. In support of our interpretation of Dewey’s anthropology of nature, we conclude with some consideration of how Dewey’s anthropological philosophy served as an inspiration for anthropologists Ruth Benedict, Gene Weltfish, Alexander Lesser, and Leslie White.
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 2011
... Page 2. Why Classical American P ragmatism is H elpful for Thinking about D eath • Charles A.... more ... Page 2. Why Classical American P ragmatism is H elpful for Thinking about D eath • Charles A. Hobbs 183 doing this, I reintroduce a notion central to the nature of pragmatism and its history, namely, the pragmatic maxim, explaining something of the role it can play in evaluating ...
Arapca yazan mantikcilar uzerine degerli arastirmalari olan Pittsburgh Universitesi emekli ogreti... more Arapca yazan mantikcilar uzerine degerli arastirmalari olan Pittsburgh Universitesi emekli ogretim uyesi Prof. Dr. Nicholas Rescher ile yapilmis olan soylesidir.
As we have discussed elsewhere, Franz Boas and John Dewey were intellectual and political allies ... more As we have discussed elsewhere, Franz Boas and John Dewey were intellectual and political allies at Columbia University for over thirty years.1 Dewey advocated for an increased role of anthropology (and other sciences) for philosophical insight, and he often used anthropological knowledge as a starting point for his ethics and politics, including such knowledge as learned from Boas. We hold that Boas and Dewey shared a common core understanding of human global and evolutionary diversity, and that this shared understanding itself forms a core component of their progressive projects. However, with regard to the problem of racism in the United States, Boas and Dewey had different engagements. Boas made the questioning of scientific racism a central feature of American anthropology, while Dewey barely addressed the problem in his writing.2 Nonetheless, as far as political activism is concerned, both Boas and Dewey were involved in the NAACP and pushed for political amelioration of social inequality through education and civil rights. In what follows, we examine the intellectual milieu of Boas and Dewey in order to problematize the ideal and idealized relationship between critical scholarship and socio-political engagement with race. We aim to elucidate part of the socio-cultural context in which much scholarship engages the problem of racism—both in the past and today. In this paper, we first describe how a general anthropological understanding of human global-evolutionary diversity is a significant aspect of the scholarship of both Boas and Dewey. We then briefly trace their engagements with racism in the United States, after which we analyze the socio-cultural factors that limited the anti-racism of Boas and Dewey. We propose, finally, a pragmatist anthropological approach to the question of race-building upon existing philosophical and anthropological studies.
This article argues that John Dewey, influenced by Franz Boas and early American anthropology, ma... more This article argues that John Dewey, influenced by Franz Boas and early American anthropology, made the first attempt to understand nature from a modern anthropological perspective. We first explain how Boas helped develop the culture concept, which played a key role in the development Dewey’s own understanding of experience. In support of our interpretation of Dewey’s anthropology of nature, we conclude with some consideration of how Dewey’s anthropological philosophy served as an inspiration for anthropologists Ruth Benedict, Gene Weltfish, Alexander Lesser, and Leslie White.
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 2011
... Page 2. Why Classical American P ragmatism is H elpful for Thinking about D eath • Charles A.... more ... Page 2. Why Classical American P ragmatism is H elpful for Thinking about D eath • Charles A. Hobbs 183 doing this, I reintroduce a notion central to the nature of pragmatism and its history, namely, the pragmatic maxim, explaining something of the role it can play in evaluating ...
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