Save

Objectivity or Solidarity? Contemporary Discussions of Pragmatism in History

In: Contemporary Pragmatism
Author:
Jong-pil Yoon Lecturer, Department of History Education, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, jpyoon1982@gmail.com

Search for other papers by Jong-pil Yoon in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Download Citation Get Permissions

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login via Institution

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

This essay critically examines contemporary discussions of pragmatism in history. First of all, as for the ‘practice before knowledge’ argument, I point out that historical inquiry cannot be properly explained by the argument whose validity is grounded in the instinct nature of practice because historical research is a contingent, intellectual behavior. About the ‘self-correcting’ argument, I maintain that historical inquiry cannot be rendered self-correcting by the pragmatic test of truth that is, in nature, future-oriented and consequentialist given that the main goal of history is to produce, not predictions or plans of action, but retrospective beliefs, which makes the mechanism of verification through action inapplicable to history. My view on the ‘disciplinary consensus’ argument is that showing how historical beliefs are produced and confirmed within the discipline does not necessarily amount to an explanation of why we should go through the whole process.

Content Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 647 55 13
Full Text Views 240 2 0
PDF Views & Downloads 61 4 0