Not available to order
Publication date:
06 November 2015Length of book:
342 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498517782
Building a Social Democracy offers an alternative intellectual history of American pragmatism, one that tries to reclaim the middle of the twentieth century in order to push neo-pragmatism beyond its philosophical limitations. Danisch argues that the major entailment of the invention of American pragmatism at the beginning of the twentieth century is that rhetorical practices are the rightful object of study and means of improving democratic life. Pragmatism entails a commitment to rhetoric. Rhetorical pragmatism is intended to be more faithful to the project of first generation pragmatism, to offer insight into the ways in which rhetoric operates in contemporary democratic cultures, to recommend practices, methods, and modes of action for improving contemporary democratic cultures, and to subordinate philosophy to rhetoric by reimagining appropriate ways for pragmatist scholarship and social research to advance.
Danisch performs intellectual alchemy, changing the philosophical questions of recent pragmatism into the gold of rhetorical concepts vital to the pursuit of a flourishing democracy. Majestic in its scope, his book represents a prescient reminder that how we have received pragmatism is not the only way to think through its complexities and potentials. Put simply, Building a Social Democracy is one of the most useful and thought-provoking works to emerge out of the meeting of the pragmatist and rhetorical traditions.