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American Pragmatism, Sociology and the Development of Disability Studies
information and competing communities of discourse. RORTY
(1979; 1991) is an example of these positions. He dismisses claims
to objectivity as wishful thinking, arguing that our standards of
evidence and our scientific and social policy practices are cultural
conventions. RORTY has been a powerful influence on cultural
studies, including disability studies, in so far as he stresses the
importance of engaging in conversation about issues and analyzing
texts in a open discourse taking into account the subjective
differences and cultural grounding of the participants. This
perspective in social science and the humanities highlights the
reading of situations and texts and analysis of both the observer/reader
and that which is observed or is the text. RORTY’s
brand of positivism also emphasizes cultural and historical context.
This approach to understanding raises important questions such
as: Who has the right to speak and interpret? What constitutes a
community of discourse or a community of scholars? What are the
criteria of admission to such communities? How is an argument
comprised and evidence presented that would convince others of
its truth and usefulness? How does cultural context and history
affect the definition of the situation and how the “facts are
interpreted? How is evidence, theory and argument translated into
social policies that have the power the change the behavior of
others, rearrange status hierarchies and the structure of institutions?
In reviewing this broad range of pragmatic positions and
their use, it is noteworthy that there are not merely different but
radically opposed forms of pragmatism. However, they do address
many of the same fundamental questions of how we acquire and
use knowledge and they share the important principle that
knowledge ought to be evaluated in terms of its utility and the
consequences of its application to practical problems.
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