Pragmatism and the American Dream
Chase Hochstetler
Chase Hochstetler
C.S. Pierce was a Pragmatist form the
early 1900’s along with William James. C.S. Peirce however seemed to focus more
on real life examples in making his pragmatism philosophy more scientific. “Peirce
believed that for a statement to be true there had to be some possible
experiment or observation to support it.” This can relate back to his example
of glass being brittle in my first post. He approaches the philosophy of
pragmatism with much more of a practical application focus.
The American Dream the foundations that
our nation is built upon. The idea of the “American Dream” that everyone has an
opportunity to make something of themselves, whether that is through money or
if it’s through a perfect family. Harvard political scientist Jennifer Hochschild’s prominent
book Facing Up to the American Dream
(1995) declared, “The American Dream . . . promises that everyone, regardless
of ascription or background, may reasonably seek success through action and traits
under their own control.” Many people from the outside have seen the American
Dream as a hope for them that if they could get to America then they would be
free to do whatever they please earning every penny they are capable of. Cal
Jilson professor of political science at SMU said “The American Dream is the
promise that the country holds out to the rising generation and to immigrants
that hard work and fair play will almost certainly lead to success.”
Some people feel that
the American Dream is long over, but many people would disagree. If you took a
pragmatist view and looked at the American Dream you could see its validity.
The American Dream in itself represents equality and how if everything is on
playing field then everyone has an opportunity to succeed and achieve the
American Dream. This is how you can relate pragmatism and the American Dream
together. They are not the same thing; however, you can see the similarities
between the two. I thought to my self what is my view of the American Dream
that’s a very complex question. How do you define something that you’ve grown
up around that for years has told you how to live and act and behave?
Writing about
something that you don’t necessarily agree with is generally hard to take a
stance for. I chose to write about this because I thought it was interesting. I
did it because I knew by doing this it would benefit me in the long run.
Learning about things that don’t line up with your beliefs allow you to be able
to talk to people about stuff that you have learned and try to understand their
point of views. It doesn’t matter who you are what you believe until we put our
differences down and view each other not as what can I get out of you but what
can you do for them it will mean nothing and we will get nowhere, so no I’m not
a pragmatist that doesn’t mean that they’re view is any less than mine.
Sources-
-A Little History of Philosophy,
written by Nigel Warburton
-Facing Up to the American Dream,
written by Jennifer Hochscild
-The Ambiguity of the Dream in American
History, written by Cal Jilson
Posts I’ve commented on-
I see the similarities between pragmatism and the "American Dream", and I agree that it's always good to look at points of view other than your own.
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