The Domestication Of Liberalism By Pragmatism

This paper advanced three arguments. First, Pragmatism provided new resources and possibilities for the development of Liberalism, when the utilitarian reasoning proved insufficient in the liberalist framework. Second, Classic Pragmatism built the basis for re-establishing a road to freedom by formally defining the concept of "experience." Dewey's classic pragmatist theory proved that the domestication of Liberalism and Pragmatism is unavoidable. Third, Neo-pragmatism brought Liberalism into a "rootless era" by implementing the principles of Classic Pragmatism and drawing on ideas from Post-modernism. Based on the three arguments, this paper concludes that Pragmatism provided Liberalism with a new and more effective means of thinking, and had major impacts on the development of Liberalism and the entire subject of political philosophy.This paper provided a comprehensive review of the relationship between Utilitarianism, Pragmatism, and Liberalism. Utilitarianism is empirical, opposite to the free will theory from the Continent. In contrast, Pragmatism is empiricist, and is opposite to metaphysics. On the other side, what Liberalism and Empiricism advanced are similar to pragmatist and utilitarian theories in many ways, as all of them are descents from the British school of thought.This paper was divided into three parts. It first reviewed the major theories of Pragmatism, a defense method for Liberalism in early days. The paper then introduced Pragmatism's criticism to Utilitarianism, and delineated the principles of Liberalism from a pragmatist perspective. The New-pragmatism, a product of Pragmatism, injected new blood into Liberalism by providing it with a new post-modern method of thinking. This paper argues that Liberalism was able to continuously draw new ideas from Pragmatism. Dewey, a classic pragmatist, went beyond criticizing Utilitarianism and Metaphysics, and overcame two weaknesses of Utilitarianism- the lack of rationalist basis that Muller desired and the lack of empirical factors in Continental Rational Liberalism, and rediscovered the road to freedom. By reshaping experience and gave it new interpretation, Dewey then established Neo-liberalism. In contrast, Richard Rorty, a neo-pragmatist, carried forward Dewey's rejection of certainty and its criticism of metaphysics, and defined Liberalism as merely a contingency. All in all, Pragmatism and Neo-pragmatism both played an important role in the development of Liberalism in its post-Utilitarianism era.This paper argued that this process is the domestication of Liberalism by Pragmatism. Pragmatism provides Liberalism with a unique way of interpreting experience. It also leads Rawls and other liberalists to correct the liberalist theories. Rather than only focusing on Dewey's achievement in Pragmatism, this paper also examines Dewey's influence on Liberalism. This paper aims to separate out the pragmatist framework of political philosophy from other political theories, making it an independent field of research parallel to other mainstream political philosophical theories. Pragmatism provides an important way of thinking to other political philosophical theories, and it will have a even more important and far-reaching impact on the development of Liberalism, the growth of political philosophy, and even the development of the entire subject of philosophy.