Pragmatism, Music's Import, and Music Teachers as Change Agents

Abstract

I approach the notion that music teachers can affect musical culture from the perspective of pragmatist philosophy, specifically that of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), who is widely regarded as the founder of pragmatism. Despite relative obscurity during his own lifetime, Peirce has had a major, if indirect, influence on philosophy over much of the past century; William James, George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty, among other notable philosophers, have all identified themselves as pragmatists and borrowed from Peirce in their writings. Numerous anthropologists and sociologists have turned to Peirce for guidance in recent years, owing to the uniquely comprehensive way in which he addressed matters of human cognition as well as the usefulness of his concepts for sorting out matters of cultural difference.¹ As the cultural makeup of schools has become increasingly diverse over the past several decades, more scholars have brought anthropological and sociological lenses to their studies of music education, so consideration of Peirce’s perspectives seems particularly appropriate at present.