Reading Pragmatism

In the Introduction to Reading Pragmatism, Cleo Cherryholmes writes, “Pragmatism is a discourse that attempts to bridge where we are with where we might end up. The future, the other unknown side of this bridge, can certainly be forbidding....The temptation is to look backward. Pragmatism resists this siren’s song by accepting the challenge to look ahead.”

But within his own book, Cherryholmes does both—look back and look ahead—with an eye toward the rethinking of aesthetics of ordinary experiences and how it is shaped by power and knowledge. He traces pragmatism through discussions of such varied proponents of the philosophy as Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, John Dewey, W. V. O. Quine, and Donald Davidson, and applies a Foucauldian conception of power and knowledge to his readings of the texts.

This insightful volume provides both a useful context for understanding educational discourse through a pragmatist lens, and a unique view of the interplay of aesthetics, knowledge, and power.