Commentaries and debates: The Decline of Experience? Pastoral Fears of (Neo)Pragmatism Cover Image

Omówienia: Zmierzch doświadczenia? Pastoralistyczne lęki (neo)pragmatyzmu
Commentaries and debates: The Decline of Experience? Pastoral Fears of (Neo)Pragmatism

Author(s): Alina Mitek-Dziemba
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Summary/Abstract: The article aims at describing and analyzing some of the contemporary dilemmas of American neopragmatist philosophy. It would appear that Richard Rorty’s conclusions concerning the conceptual framework of world-description as rooted solely in the multiplicity of contingent paradigms of vocabularies forces into the background an important aspect of the preceding pragmatist tradition: the sensory experience. Using the example of two prominent landscape artists, Nancy Holt and Ana Mendieta, as the point of departure, the article illustrates the attempts of the neopragmatist thought to revive those elements of John Dewey’s aesthetic philosophy that bear direct relevance to contemporary ecocriticism. In this context, John Shusterman’s writings may parallel the pastoral element of eco-philosophy, providing a refreshing perspective on concepts of the environment and the non-human.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 29
  • Page Range: 67-84
  • Page Count: 18