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American Pragmatism, Sociology and the Development of Disability Studies
A group of neo-pragmatists, including RORTY, QUINE, PUTNAM and
HAACK, recognize that “objective certitude” advocated by early
pragmatists is not a feasible goal for science or epistemology. Yet,
they are keenly interested in the question of truth, seeking to find
a middle ground between dogmatism and skepticism (HAACK
1996: 656). This work lays a philosophical foundation for many of
the issues debated in contemporary cultural studies, including:
What constitutes evidence? How is a text to be read? Who can
speak about or understand the experience of another? What are
human rights? What is just in a given situation?
The Confluence of Pragmatism, American Sociology and
Disability Studies
Pragmatism was influential in the development of Sociology and
subsequently of Disability Studies in the United States because it
provided a conceptual framework for thinking about the critical
issues confronting social scientists and suggested the types of data
and analysis that should be used to construct arguments. Social
scientists were concerned with developing theories, methods and a
body of knowledge addressing social behavior that would be
credible and useful. Over the years, pragmatism shaped the pursuit
of these desiderata in the discipline of sociology in three important
ways. First, early pragmatism emphasized that if sociology is to be
a science, it should follow the “scientific method” of the natural
sciences by embracing the epistemological principle of falsification.
This principle, elaborated and disseminated by POPPER (1972),
suggests that scientists put forward a theory, initially as an
uncorroborated conjecture, and then test its predictions with
observations to see if the theory stands up to the test. If carefully
designed tests of hypotheses prove negative, the theory is
experimentally falsified and the investigators will modify the theory
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Heilpädagogik online 03/ 03