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Pragmatism was considered for some decades as the philosophy of progressive education but, more recently, this identification has been problematized and different interpretations of the significance of pragmatism for the educational discourse have emerged. Against this backdrop, the chapter undertakes an exploration of the meaning of pragmatism, by highlighting how its anti-dualism, anti-foundationalism, and fallibilism have been pivotal for the elaboration of conceptual tools (like those of inquiry, habit, belief, social self, and democracy as a form of life), which have been of major import for the philosophical-educational reflection. In the interpretation here advanced the anti-Cartesian and Darwinian matrix of the classic pragmatist thought has provided educational philosophy and theory with the resources to remove the deadlocks of modern philosophy with its dichotomies between experience and thinking, body and mind, and action and theory.This heritage of classic pragmatism is vindicated also when addressing the meaning of neo-pragmatism. While recognizing the philosophical creativity of Richard Rorty's views and the role that he has had in reinvigorating the pragmatist discourse, it is shown how it is precisely in education that some limitations of his abandonment of the classicopragmatist emphasis on experience (in favor of that on language) and his literature-oriented approach come to the fore.From this perspective, in the final section it is argued that the topicality of pragmatism resides in its being a "mediating way of thinking' between the full appreciation of science for education and the need not to yield to any kind of scientism by recognizing the richness of human experience.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_47

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