Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 625 ation of the ostensibly political aspects of Nietzsche's work and to relate these to his general philosophy. His book offers the most thorough evaluation of the consistencies and convolutions of Nietzsche's political views to date. Perhaps one should ask no more from an author than that stated goals be met. Yet, some criticism is in order. Detwilcr's account fails to address the question of the meaning of politics, for himself or for Nictzsche. Nor does it distinguish between different sorts of political activities and their relevance. Nietzsche never engaged in what we commonly understand as political activity. He consistently decried party politics and disparaged the state and its calls to duty. To the extent he strayed from his reclusive, solitary life, Nietzsche saw himself as an educator. But education, as Plato and Aristotle have informed us, remains the most important kind of politics. Today, we often forget this truth. For very good reasons we have attempted to separate the school, university, and media, no less than the church, from the state. Yet culture, civic and otherwise, as the product of education, bears tremendous political significance. Detwiler ignores this fact. The questions which never get asked in Detwiler's book and Which anyone with interests both in Nietzsche and politics needs to ask, are: What are the political consequences of and responses to nihilism, and how does Nietzsche better allow us to grapple with them? In the absence of such concerns the problem of Nietzsche's politics becomes academic. Nietzsche is engaging if nothing else. Yet Detwiler gives us little reason to study Nietzsche, short of the Millian tenet that there is value in "even offensive challenges to one's belief" (8). As useful as such an orientation is, it provides a very limiting approach both to Nietzsche's philosophy and to the worldly problems upon which Nietzsche shed so much harsh light. LESLIE PAUL THIELE University of Florida, Gainesville John P. Murphy. Pragmatism: From Peirce to Davidson. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 199o. Pp. vii + 15~. Cloth, $34.95. Paper, $1~.95. This short work traces (as the subtitle indicates) the development of pragmatism from Charles S. Peirce to Donald Davidson, from the "winged words" or informal conversations of the Metaphysical Club to Davidson's transformation of Willard van Orman Quine's approach to meaning and truth. In fact, this study picks up the story even earlier than the informal discussion group founded by Peirce and William James in 187 l, for Chapter i (7-12) is devoted to "Peirce's Rejection of Cartesianism" as this is presented in "a pair [in truth, in a trio] of articles that appeared in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy in 1868" (8). In addition, it concludes not simply with Davidson but with Richard Rorty's case for Davidson's philosophical achievements belonging to the American pragmatic tradition (x 16). Both of these contemporary "pragmatists" are themselves viewed principally in relation to themes and questions encountered in Quine's writings: "since Davidson writes (to a great extent) in reaction to Quine, and Richard Rorty writes (to a great extent) in reaction to Quine and Davidson, it seems appropriate that a segment of this course devoted to the writings of Davidson and 626 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 30:4 OCTOBER 1992 Rorty should bear a title that makes their indebtedness to Quine manifest" (95). In a sense, Rorty is given the last word, for it is his essays "Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism" and (to a greater extent) "Pragmatism, Davidson, and Truth" to which the concluding pages of this book are devoted. Rorty also has the first word. The Foreword and Introduction ("Pragmatism as Anti-Representationalism") are by him. In fact, his hand in this project is even greater than these contributions. We learn from the Foreword that John P. Murphy's "tragically early death occured not long after he had finished the manuscript. With the encouragement of his widow and his colleagues, I [RR] edited the manuscript for publication" (vii). Another piece of information in the Foreword helps us even more in attaining an appropriate orientation to the book under review: "As part of a curriculum revision project...