Word: pragmatist
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Puritan ethos was a stimulus to striving and hard work; no wonder that it gave way to its secular descendant, pragmatism-the uniquely American philosophy articulated by C. S. Peirce, Dewey and William James. Americans are the exemplars of pragmatism, of rational humanism. The pragmatist, of course, does not deny the existence of evil-although he likes to call it something else. But he optimistically assumes that it exists in institutions rather than men, and can therefore be legislated away. Thus evils, in the American experience, have always been seen as concrete problems that could be dissected and analyzed-like...
...Kenneth Towery, does not agree. The agency's mission, according to Towery, is to compete against the Communists. "I want to beat 'em down," he says, "and I don't care whether it takes the liberal or conservative viewpoint to do it. I'm a pragmatist." He adds: "Frankly, there are people in this agency who are soft on Communism. But we will not have any trouble as long as they do what is expected of them...
...Aquarius? Certainly Voltaire, with his brisk faith that enlightened common sense could solve all problems, is hardly the voice to which we tune our orgiastic electric guitars. Quite the contrary. Emancipated from religious "superstition," living in a world where science is the final arbiter, we have inherited the pragmatist's Utopia that Voltaire more or less prescribed-and thanks just the same, we know all too accurately the price we have paid...
THOUGH be led at various times the Faculty's conservative caucus last spring, Dunlop has little ideology outside a belief in collective bargaining and democracy. He makes himself useful by keeping his views to himself, a straightforward pragmatist who likes to play it close to the vest. Roger Rosenblatt, assistant professor of English and member of the Committee of 15, describes him as follows: "Conservative is too negative a description. It's what you call someone when there's nothing else to say. Dunlop's honesty is the most expressive thing about him. His word is absolutely reliable, though...
...Richelieu, "he loves theology, he does not entirely lack interest in the things of God, but in the final analysis his kingdom is of this world." The judgment is thoughtful, and O'Connell, an Australian professor of international law, endorses it. He sees Richelieu as a remarkable pragmatist who "combined in a completely unique fashion an iron resolution and a gift for seeing both sides of a question...