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American Pragmatism, Sociology and the Development of Disability Studies
raise many philosophy of science and social policy questions,
pragmatism has deeply affected thinking in American social
sciences and cultural studies. However, because of its multiple
forms and re-inventions, it is difficult to characterize the work of all
pragmatists under one conceptual umbrella. In searching for a
common thread in this work, Susan HAACK (1996: 643) concludes
that pragmatism “is best characterized by the method expressed in
the pragmatic maxim, according to which the meaning of a concept
is determined by the experiential or practical consequences of its
application.”
The early pragmatists worked in the context of the Industrial
Revolution and rapid development of knowledge in the physical
sciences. They were attracted by the idea of certainty and the
formulation of scientific laws that had practical applications.
PIERCE, for example, reacted to the a priori methods traditionally
favored by metaphysicians by arguing for a scientific method where
the inquirer is ready to ‘drop the whole cartload of his beliefs, the
moment experience is against them” (PIERCE 1931-58, Vol I: 14,
55). According to his perspective, the scientific investigator is a
“contrite fallibilist” in evaluating the beliefs and evidence she
encounters. The purpose was to encourage scholars to pursue a
disinterested desire for truth and to produce theories and a body of
work that would withstand multiple and severe tests. This approach
to scientific method is compatible with POPPER’s principle of
falsification where theories are proposed and submitted “to the
severest test we can design” (POPPER 1972: 16). The attraction of
this version of the scientific method is that it emphasized objective
knowledge, realism and universality; truth lay in tested theory and
in the “facts”.
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