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Experiencing life and (religious) hope: pragmatic philosophies of religion

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Human Affairs

Abstract

Is pragmatism, as focused on a future considered producible by our finite actions, ill equipped to analyze religion (or “Erlösungswissen”, as Max Scheler said); is it unable, as Stanley Cavell writes, to sufficiently explore “skepticism” and negativity? This paper argues that William James succeeds in pragmatically re-thematizing “Erlösungswissen”, and that Josiah Royce—who develops a post-pragmatic, pragmaticist concept of; religion—carefully re-investigates “negativity”, in a Peirce-inspired mode, by focusing on the “mission of sorrow”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Universitätsstrasse 7/2/2, A-1010, Vienna, Austria

    Ludwig Nagl

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  1. Ludwig Nagl
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Correspondence to Ludwig Nagl.

Additional information

This paper was originally presented at the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy, Athens, August 8, 2013, Section IS06 “Classical American pragmatism: Practicing philosophy as experiencing life”, organized and chaired by Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, Opole University, Poland.

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Nagl, L. Experiencing life and (religious) hope: pragmatic philosophies of religion. Humaff 24, 103–111 (2014). https://doi.org/10.2478/s13374-014-0209-x

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