Pragmatism and Social Science: John Dewey’s Challenge

• In Event: 3151 - Theory Section Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 2. Advancing Sociological Foundations – B

Abstract

Classical pragmatist thought has undergone a revival in recent years in American sociology. Sociologists have drawn on the work of Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead to advance a range of theoretical and empirical agendas. This paper considers how this recent work has diverged from the epistemological commitments and visions for social science offered by the original pragmatists. Through juxtaposing John Dewey’s writings on social science with contemporary uses of pragmatism, we both suggest new ways theoretically minded sociologists can draw on the pragmatists as well as analyze the translation of intellectual work between academic fields as a problem in the sociology of knowledge.

Author

• Hannah Waight, Princeton University