Current Activities
This fall, I gave talks at the Dewey 150th Birthday Celebration in Amherst, NY, and a keynote address, "Pragmatic Democracy: Inquiry, Imagination, and Experience" at the Second Nordic Pragmatism Conference: Pragmatism in Society and Democracy in Reykjavík, Iceland, August 27-29. This conference brought together philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and educators from Iceland, Finland, the U.S., England, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland to discuss pragmatism?s contribution to politics and political theory.
I've become much more active in the Southwestern Philosophical Association, and am now their President for 2009-10. Check out their web page, here: http://www.southwesternphilosophical.com/index.html and their journal, Southwest Philosophy Review
Books
I've recently finished a book project on John Dewey for Oneworld Press.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: Because I know that many teachers will not need the whole book for their class, at least the first time they teach, I've segmented the book into separate PDFs, one for each chapter (with notes for that chapter). If you would like to try out a chapter or two in one of your classes, please email me and I will send you a PDF. This is FREE and with the publisher's consent.
This is a critical introduction to the major areas of his philosophical thought: psychology, epistemology, ethics, politics, education, aesthetics, and philosophy of religion.
Here are some kind words:
"Intelligent, informed, judicious, and praise-worthy. Clearly of help to those coming to Dewey for the first time."
--John J. McDermott - University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, and editor of The Philosophy of John Dewey
"Incisive and clear-headed. He has laid a firm foundation for discovering Dewey's importance in coming to grips with the ecological and global problems of the 21st century." --Thomas M. Alexander, Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University
"Erudite, organized, and articulate. The key terms and concepts of Dewey's major publications are identified, explained, and related to one another in ways that render his work highly accessible. A lucid and jargon-free introduction." --Larry Hickman, Director of the Center for Dewey Studies
"Guides the beginner through the major areas of Dewey's rich body of thought with clarity and insight." --Richard Shusterman, Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities, Florida Atlantic University and author of Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life
In addition, I've been writing about the epistemological and ethical issues involved in the evolution-intelligent design debate, intellectual entrepreneurship in academia, and about the intersection between pragmatist theory and public administration.
And just to cause trouble, I've started trying to think carefully about what is wrong with Powerpoint.
Here, as a first attempt, is a Powerpoint against Powerpoint.
Other Projects
I have a page of abstracts of selected articles here: http://davidhildebrand.org/index.php?page=research/abstracts.php
My first book, Beyond
Realism and Antirealism: John Dewey and the Neopragmatists was published in 2003 by Vanderbilt
University Press.
It's pretty widely available as far as I can tell, though
online is likely the best way to get it: The Tattered Cover (Denver), Amazon,
Barnes
and Noble, and Powell's
have it.
Click here
for the Index of the book (Note:
a PDF file)
Here are some kind
words about the book:
Pragmatism was revived‚
in the 1970s and 1980s and was led at once into philosophical dead ends that
John Dewey had already skillfully dismantled. Now, David Hildebrand corrects
the record; provides an informed, splendidly argued, indispensable part of the
recovery of Dewey's analysis of realism still hardly bettered by anyone today.
-- Joseph Margolis, Temple University
David Hildebrand's attempt to restate Dewey's central
message is intelligent, well-informed and well-argued, as are his polemics against
what he takes to be Putnam's and my own misunderstandings of Dewey.
--Richard Rorty, Stanford University
Beyond Realism and Antirealism
packs a double punch. Mobilizing a meticulous study of early twentieth-century
classical pragmatism, Hildebrand engages the key neopragmatic positions of Richard
Rorty and Hilary Putnam. Then, driving his own thesis home, he offers what he
terms Dewey's "practical stance" as a corrective to the limitations
of the linguistic turn.
--Larry Hickman,
Director, The Center for
Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
The book seeks to demonstrate the following main points:
*
Current debates between realists and antirealists (as well as objectivists and
relativists) are significantly similar to early 20th century debates between
realists and idealists which Pragmatism addressed extensively.
*
Despite their debts to Dewey, neopragmatists such as Richard Rorty and Hilary
Putnam are reenacting realist and idealist stands in their debate over realism
thus giving life to something shown fruitless by earlier Pragmatists.
*
What is absent from the Neopragmatist's position is precisely what makes Pragmatism
enduring: namely, its metaphysical conception of experience and a practical
starting point for philosophical inquiry that such experience dictates.
*
Pragmatism cannot take the "linguistic turn" insofar as that turn
mandates a theoretical starting point.
*
While Pragmatism's view of truth is perspectival, it is nevertheless not liable
to relativism.
*
Pace Rorty, Pragmatism need not be hostile to metaphysics; indeed, it
demonstrates how pragmatic instrumentalism and metaphysics are complementary.
Here is a brief Table
of Contents:
Preface
Abbreviations
ONE: INTRODUCTION
I. Realism, Antirealism, and Neopragmatism
II. Plan of this Book
TWO: DEWEY AND REALISM
I. Pragmatism Enters the Fray
II. Idealism, New Realism, and Critical Realism
III. Is Pragmatism Realistic?
IV. Dewey’s Pragmatic Realism
V. Conclusion
THREE: DEWEY AND IDEALISM
I. Is Pragmatism an Idealism?
II. Epistemology: Verification, Experience, Inquiry, and Signs
III. Implications of Epistemology: The External World and Knowledge of the Past
IV. Metaphysics: Antecedent Objects and The Philosophical Fallacy
V. Ethical Implications: Future Consequences, Practical Action, and the Threat
of Relativism
VI. Conclusion
FOUR: RORTY, PUTNAM, AND CLASSICAL PRAGMATISM
I. The Reintroduction of Pragmatism
II. Rorty’s Interpretation of Dewey
III. Rorty’s Neopragmatism
IV. Putnam’s Interpretation of Dewey
V. Putnam’s Neopragmatism
VI. Conclusion
FIVE: NEOPRAGMATISM’S REALISM-ANTIREALISM DEBATE
I. Introduction
II. Terminology: "Realism" and its Contraries
III. Putnam’s Realism and Rorty’s Antirealism
IV. Rorty and Putnam’s Debate
V. Conclusion
SIX: BEYOND REALISM AND ANTIREALISM
I. What "Beyond" Means
II. Historical Parallels: Early Realists and Neopragmatists
III. The Theoretical Starting Point
IV. The Practical Starting Point
V. Pragmatism, Neopragmatism, and Philosophy’s Future
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Office Hours