Full Description
Building a Social Democracy offers an alternative intellectual history of American pragmatism, one that tries to reclaim the middle of the twentieth century in order to push neo-pragmatism beyond its philosophical limitations. Danisch argues that the major entailment of the invention of American pragmatism at the beginning of the twentieth century is that rhetorical practices are the rightful object of study and means of improving democratic life. Pragmatism entails a commitment to rhetoric. Rhetorical pragmatism is intended to be more faithful to the project of first generation pragmatism, to offer insight into the ways in which rhetoric operates in contemporary democratic cultures, to recommend practices, methods, and modes of action for improving contemporary democratic cultures, and to subordinate philosophy to rhetoric by reimagining appropriate ways for pragmatist scholarship and social research to advance.
Contents
Chapter One: Richard Rorty and the Limits of the Linguistic Turn
Chapter Two: Stanley Fish and the Limits of Anti-Foundationalism
Chapter Three: Cornel West and the Quest for Deep Democracy
Chapter Four: Richard McKeon's Philosophy of Rhetoric
Chapter Five: Hugh Duncan's Sociology of Rhetoric and Kenneth Burke's Rhetoric of Identification
Chapter Six: Social Democracy, Deliberative Ecologies, and Rhetorical Structures
Chapter Seven: Artistry, Inquiry, and Rhetorical Citizenship
Chapter Eight: Pluralism, Prudence, and Rhetorical Leadership
