John Rawls and American Pragmatism

Daniele Botti argues that John Rawls's philosophy is importantly connected with classical American pragmatism and that Rawls's intellectual trajectory did not take a "pragmatic turn" in the 1980s but possibly an "un-pragmatic" one. Both claims go against conventional wisdom, and Botti corroborates them with archival research.

Contents

Table of Rawls's published Works and Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

General Introduction

Part One: Rawls in the Struggle over the Legacy of Pragmatism

1. Pragmatism: Old Disagreements and the "Eclipse Narrative"

2. The Rorty Discussion

3. The Rorty Discussion, and Rawls

4. Rawls and Pragmatism: What Pragmatism?

Part Two: The Pragmatist Sources of Rawls's Thinking

5. Induction and the Origin of Reflective Equilibrium

6. Rawls on Peirce, Putnam, and White

7. Rawls on Dewey before the "Dewey Lectures"

Part Three: What's the Use of Calling Rawls a Pragmatist?

8. Rawlsian Suggestions on Rawls's neglected Pragmatism

9. The Historical Use of Calling Rawls a Pragmatist

10. The Philosophical Use of Calling the "early" Rawls a Pragmatist

11. The Political Use of Calling Rawls a Pragmatist

Bibliography

About the Author

Index