Abstract
In this essay, I examine why pragmatism is appropriate for addressing deep conflict and environmental crisis. Spiritual pragmatism offers a path of thought and action through which moral impulse, creative instinct, and democratic culture become increasingly united, thereby healing deep rifts and addressing serious systemic errors at the root of global problems today. The essay analyzes the relationship between biological impulse and the democratic ideal. It investigates how this relationship calls upon the higher criterion of authenticity maintained by pragmatism, and how it promotes citizens’ participation in the making of a democratic culture that improves spiritual functioning in the society. The importance of efforts like Truth and Reconciliation, and of public disclosures, is emphasized as a means of supporting the pragmatic effort to gain better articulated political and legal insights that challenge the conceptual foundations of the society and that therefore have greater potential to change its cognitive order. Ecological metaphors of growth and transformation are also presented to illustrate poetically how the spiritual pragmatist unites theory and practice through experience and interaction in community. The aesthetic ecology promoted by pragmatism supports truth-seeking and transparency in society. I conclude that the pragmatist’s respect for this ecology encourages the kind of transformational human development needed to unify moral impulse, creative instinct, and democratic culture and to facilitate social healing.
The original version of this chapter was revised: The incorrect representation ‘Effendi, Shoghi’ in reference and the incorrect change of ‘theotic’ to ‘theoretic’ have been updated. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7102-2_16
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Geredien, J.M. (2021). Pragmatism and the “Changing of the Earth”: Unifying Moral Impulse, Creative Instinct, and Democratic Culture. In: Giri, A.K. (eds) Pragmatism, Spirituality and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7102-2_5
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