The Varieties of Pluralism

I argue that Dewey and the pragmatic thinkers were really ahead of their times. Dewey is relevant today in helping us to gain some perspective on our extremely confused and chaotic cultural condition. Furthermore, the dialectic of contemporary philosophy keeps leading us back to the point of departure for the pragmatic thinkers. This is especially evident in the revival of the centrality of the concept of a democratic community. I also seek to clarify what is most important about the pragmatic understanding of pluralism. For, while there is a deep sensitivity to irreducible difference and the variety of experience, there is also a conviction that we are not prisoners locked into our own perspectives, frameworks, and paradigms. We can always reach out, communicate, and share with what is other and different from ourselves.