The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry
Jane Wills and Robert Lake
Abstract
This book makes the case for a pragmatist approach to the practice of social inquiry and knowledge production. Through diverse examples from multiple disciplines, contributors explore the power of pragmatism to inform a practice of inquiry that is democratic, community-centred, problem-oriented and experimental. Drawing from both classical and neo-pragmatist perspectives, the book advances a pragmatist sensibility in which truth and knowledge are contingent rather than universal, made rather than found, provisional rather than dogmatic, subject to continuous experimentation rather than ultimat ... More
This book makes the case for a pragmatist approach to the practice of social inquiry and knowledge production. Through diverse examples from multiple disciplines, contributors explore the power of pragmatism to inform a practice of inquiry that is democratic, community-centred, problem-oriented and experimental. Drawing from both classical and neo-pragmatist perspectives, the book advances a pragmatist sensibility in which truth and knowledge are contingent rather than universal, made rather than found, provisional rather than dogmatic, subject to continuous experimentation rather than ultimate proof and verified in their application in action rather than in the accuracy of their representation of an antecedent reality. The power of pragmatism offers a path forward for mobilizing the practice of inquiry in social research, exploring the implications of pragmatism for the process of knowledge production.
Keywords:
pragmatism,
knowledge production,
social inquiry,
social research,
research philosophy,
research practice,
democracy,
community,
John Dewey,
Richard Rorty
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781526134943 |
| Published to Manchester Scholarship Online: January 2021 |
DOI:10.7765/9781526134950 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Jane Wills, editor
University of Exeter
Robert Lake, editor
Rutgers University
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