当代美国实用主义者对杜威哲学遗产的继承与发展

Under Dewey’s Flag: On Contemporary Pragmatists’ Inheritance and Development of Dewey’s Philosophical Legacy

作为古典实用主义集大成者,杜威对当代实用主义的发展有着至关重要的影响。他对西方传统哲学的改造为当代实用主义的发展制定了路标,因而被新实用主义最重要的代表人物罗蒂奉为精神导师。他在理论哲学和实践哲学方面的许多观点在当代一系列重要的哲学讨论中得到了深刻的体现。他的自然主义语言观、行为主义语义学以及整体主义哲学观,受到奎因的高度赞誉。他的实用主义实在论对于普特南的思想转变有着直接的启发。他对于逻辑实证主义经验观的批判以及对于传统心灵概念的改造,在麦克道威尔和普特南那里产生了强烈的共鸣。他的经验主义伦理学观点直接导致了罗蒂的"无形而上学的伦理学"和普特南的"无本体论的伦理学"。他的民主学说广为人知,伯恩斯坦对其做了大量深入的阐发;韦斯特则将其与艾默生所开创的个人主义传统相结合,对杜威的民主思想做了进一步的发展。杜威对于当代实用主义的影响如此深入而持久,以至于我们可以说,实用主义的当代发展是在杜威的旗帜下实现的。

Dewey, as the most important classical pragmatist, has strong and lasting influences on the development of contemporary pragmatism. He makes the guidepost for that development by reconstruction of traditional western philosophy, and so becomes the spiritual tutor of Rorty, the main representative of new pragmatism. Besides this, we also can see the impact from Dewey in today’s discussions about a series of topics of theoretical and practical philosophies. His naturalistic doctrine of language, behavioristic semantics and holistic view of philosophy are highly appreciated by Quine. His pragmatist realism inspires Putnam significantly. His criticism against the conception of experience of logical positivism and reformation of traditional theory of mind are echoed obviously in MacDowell and Putnam. Moreover, Dewey’s practical philosophy is also attractive to many contemporary pragmatists. His thought about ethics directly results in Rorty’s "ethics without metaphysics" and Putnam’s "ethics without ontology." His ideas of democracy are well known by many people, about which Bernstein has a lot of elucidations. West tries to push Dewey’s ideas forward by combining them with individualism deliberated by Emerson. Dewey is never absent from almost all of today’s philosophical discussions. He still shapes the direction of the development of new pragmatism. So, it can be concluded that the development of contemporary pragmatism is fulfilled under Dewey’s flag.