Pluralism: An Antidote for Fanaticism, the Delusion of Our Age

William James's pluralism, when combined with his pragmatism and radical empiricism, is a complete and coherent philosophy of life. James provides an antidote to the excesses of both the extreme realist/objectivist and the extreme constructivist/relativist camps. In this paper, we demonstrate h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of mind and behavior 2009-06, Vol.30 (3), p.139-147
Main Authors: Howard, George S., Christopherson, Cody D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antidotes
Epistemic pluralism
Intuition
Ontological pluralism
Ontology
Philosophical psychology
Pluralist school
Political extremism
Pragmatism
Truth
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Summary:William James's pluralism, when combined with his pragmatism and radical empiricism, is a complete and coherent philosophy of life. James provides an antidote to the excesses of both the extreme realist/objectivist and the extreme constructivist/relativist camps. In this paper, we demonstrate how this is so in a discussion of epistemology and ontology including several extended examples. These examples demonstrate the inescapability of context and background assumptions and the advantages of a pluralist worldview.
ISSN:0271-0137