This collection of essays engages with the current resurgence of interest in the relationship between American pragmatism and communication studies. The topics engaged in this collection of essays is necessarily diverse, with some of the figures discussed within often viewed as minor or ancillary to the main tradition of pragmatism. However, each essay attempts to show the value of reading these minor figures for philosophy and rhetorical studies. The diversity of the pragmatist tradition is evident in the ways in which unlikely figures like Hu Shi, Ambedkar, and Alice Dewey leverage some of the original commitments of pragmatism to do important intellectual, social, and political work within the circumstances that they find themselves. This collection of essays also serves as a reminder for how we might reimagine and reuse pragmatism for our own social and political projects and challenges.

Foregrounds pragmatist figures that are often ignored in the central scholarship to develop a deeper understanding of the meaning and importance of communication Focuses on theory-building through diverse historical resources that hold the potential to help rethink the usefulness of the pragmatist tradition Bridges the gaps between philosophy and rhetoric/communication

Autorentext
Robert Danisch is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Danisch is a founder and international authority on rhetorical pragmatisman ambitious re-imagining of what democracy can be in today's urban, multicultural, and globalized world. He is author of Pragmatism, Democracy, and the Necessity of Rhetoric (2007) and Building a Social Democracy: The Promise of Rhetorical Pragmatism (2015).

Inhalt

1. On the Uses and On-going Relevance of Pragmatism for Communication Studies (Robert Danisch).- 2. Richard McKeon in the Pragmatist Tradition (Peter Simonson).- 3. Hu Shi's Search for the Chinese Sophist and Spirit of Courageous Doubt (Rya Butterfield).- 4. Echoes of Pragmatism in India: Bhimrao Ambedkar and Reconstructive Rhetoric (Scott R. Stroud).- 5. The Art of Adjustment: Ralph Ellison's Pragmatist Critique of Irving Howe (Jansen B. Werner).- 6. Living Pragmatism: Alice Dewey's Open-Minded Approach to Experiential Education and Cross-Cultural Immersion (Karen Shea & Krysten Manke).- 7. The Accidental Pragmatist: Jonathan Haidt's Moral Psychology as Pragmatic Popular Science (Jeremy Smyczek).- 8. Jane Addams' Rhetorical Ear: Teaching, Learning, and Listening in the Settlement House Model (Amy E. Dayton).- 9. Emergent Publics, Public Emergencies: The Importance of John Dewey in Jane Bennett's Nonhuman Politics of Vital Materialism (Daniel P. Richards).