Does anyone else in here consider him or herself a pragmatist? If so, rec this thread!

[Writer]

That is a philosophical pragmatist in the tradition of William James and John Dewey? Or perhaps Walter Lippmann or James Carey?

I consider myself a philosophical pragmatist. If you haven't yet purchased it, I highly recommend James Kloppenberg's Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition. It discusses how philosophical pragmatism differs from the vulgar pragmatism with which ideologues label Obama.

Are you in this camp? Hey - this is a good chance to do a "rec this thread" thing. So rec this thread if you consider yourself one. :)

[dkf]

1. Just bought myself a nook on cyber Monday.

Maybe I will check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Radical Activist]

2. A pragmatist along the lines of Saul Alinsky.

Get as much as you can and keep pushing for more.

[jberryhill]

3. Slightly, but I need to see the optometrist again /nt

[pnorman]

4. From Amazon:

Product Description

Barack Obama puzzles observers. Derided by the Right as dangerous and by the Left as spineless, Obama does not fit contemporary partisan categories. Instead, his writings and speeches reflect a principled aversion to absolutes that derives from sustained engagement with American democratic thought. Reading Obama traces the origins of his ideas and establishes him as the most penetrating political thinker elected to the presidency in the past century.

James T. Kloppenberg demonstrates the influences that have shaped Obama's distinctive worldview, including Nietzsche and Niebuhr, Ellison and Rawls, and recent theorists engaged in debates about feminism, critical race theory, and cultural norms. Examining Obama's views on the Constitution, slavery and the Civil War, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement, Kloppenberg shows Obama's sophisticated understanding of American history. Obama's interest in compromise, reasoned public debate, and the patient nurturing of civility is a sign of strength, not weakness, Kloppenberg argues. He locates its roots in Madison, Lincoln, and especially in the philosophical pragmatism of William James and John Dewey, which nourished generations of American progressives, black and white, female and male, through much of the twentieth century, albeit with mixed results.

Reading Obama reveals the sources of Obama's commitment to democratic deliberation: the books he has read, the visionaries who have inspired him, the social movements and personal struggles that have shaped his thinking. Kloppenberg shows that Obama's positions on social justice, religion, race, family, and America's role in the world do not stem from a desire to please everyone but from deeply rooted--although currently unfashionable--convictions about how a democracy must deal with difference and conflict.

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Obama-American-Political-Tradition/dp/0691147469

Thanks for the lead! I'll probably order the Kindle version, and get started on in the morning.

[sat110]

5. Its not that complicated

No its called, the Good Cop Bad Cop con
or in this case the good right winger, bad right winger con
and in the end the right wing policy's get passed. I think
he gets way to much credit we were a easy mark, we believed
without any questioning whatsoever and it cost us.

Jobs are never coming back they have been outsourced for
cheaper labor all for Higher CEO Salary's and bonuses period
Obama is simply looking out for himself, he is now one of them
and being a current or ex President he is automatically set for
life. But will go down in history as the greatest democratic
sellout that ever lived for whatever that's worth.

TP

[pnorman]

6. "BRILLIANT"!

But I'll read that book anyhow.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. Obama looking out for himself? Now that I disagree with you on. If anything, he's doing

everything in his power to ensure that he's a one-term president. Forget what the wingnuts are trying to do. He's doing a great job of that himself. I just want to understand why. Is it his devotion to this pragmatic ideal that is costing him? As for the outsourcing of jobs, you can thank Bill Clinton and George Bush for that. Remember, Congress attempted to pass legislation that would stop giving tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas. What do you think happened to that legislation? Yep. It got blocked by the Republicans in the Senate. Had nothing to do with Obama. :sigh:

[rug]

7. I would unrec but it would not accomplish anything.

So I won't.

[mikekohr]

8. I'm A Pragmatic Progressive, like the President

"You don't have to be smart to be involved in politics, but you do need to be able to count." -Robert F. Kennedy-

[JoePhilly]

9. +1

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Tell me, Writer, if the President is a 'philosophical Pragmatisit'

how do you explain his own declaration of being 'faith based' and a traditional Christian, who bases some of his policy positions on what he believes an invisible being wants him to do, how do you explain his use of words such as 'sanctified' to describe some people, how do you explain his clearly spoken statements of Christian faith? When he says he 'believes' marriage is only for the sanctified, how in the bloody hell is that philosophical pragmatism?
Do you think that the President is just lying when he claims this moral absolute based set of faith founded beliefs? That he actually feels that the only definition of right and wrong is seen in the results of an action, not in some Book or catch phrase? What does 'sanctified by God' mean to a pragmatist?
Explain some of this. Telling me that he is both a Christian and a Pragmatist is amusing, in my Christian schooling, Pragmatism was presented as a heresy. A heretical philosophy, not a philosophy in harmony with Christianity at all.
Do I personally believe that the ends justify any means at all, no matter? No I do not, sir. I think for example, that discrimination and bigotry is simply wrong, not a Sacramental Aspect of the Invisible God of the Faith Based Pragmatists.
Do you have anything to say about this collage of philosophies you claim for Obama? Faith Based Pragmatism, is it?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Liberal pragmatist here. Yeah, I know it may sound like an oxymoron around these parts,

but it's true.

I'm going to buy this book because I think it's important to understand how the pragmatist mind thinks when it comes to solving difficult, seemingly insurmountable, problems.