OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

PHIL 5910       Pragmatism and Social Justice

Spring 2001        Professor John Shook

Course Description:        This course discusses some of the central contributions made by the pragmatic tradition of thought to social and political philosophy. The study of the key books of John Dewey will be followed by a study of recent voices that claim a pragmatic heritage and attempt to advance this philosophy into the 21^st century. Specific topics include: the history and future of the democratic way of life, democratic institutions, and democratic government; the quest for freedom and individualism in an ever-increasingly industrialized and urban nation; the possibility of genuine community and shared values for a country that has witnessed a rise in ethnic pluralism; and the reconstructive role of moral norms, social principles, and religious worldviews that may impede or advance progress towards democratic ideals.

Required Texts:          John Dewey. Democracy and Education

                        __________. The Public and Its Problems

                                    __________. Individualism, Old and New

                                    __________. Liberalism and Social Action

                        Robert Westbrook. John Dewey and American Democracy

                                    John Patrick Diggins. The Promise of Pragmatism

                                    William Caspary. Dewey on Democracy

                        Judith Green. Deep Democracy

                                    Cornel West. The Cornel West Reader

                        Richard Rorty. Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America

Recommended Texts:

                         John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism, by Alan Ryan

              Transforming Experience: John Dewey's Cultural Instrumentalism, by Michael Eldridge

            John Dewey: Philosopher of Democracy, by David Fott

                        The Political Philosophy of John Dewey, by Terry Hoy

                        Left Out: Pragmatism, Exceptionalism, and the Poverty of American Marxism, by Brian Lloyd

                        The Future of American Progressivism, by Cornel West and Roberto Unger

                        Cornel West and the Politics of Prophetic Pragmatism, by Mark David Wood

Requirements:               The final grade will be based on four papers, each 5-6 pages in length, and class participation.

Office Hours:               T-TH 10:30am-12pm; and by appointment.  Location: 206 Hanner Hall.  Phone: 744-9231.  Messages and materials can be placed in my mailbox, which is located across the hall from my office. My webpage, which offers links to course syllabi, is at http://philosophy.okstate.edu/shook.htm