Biology, Pragmatism and the Question of Contradiction

Abstract

In this article I present H. R. Maturana's work as an alternative that reinforces pragmatism in the task of thinking philosophy through the evolution of biological species. I try to demonstrate how Maturana's biology dilutes the principal argument against American Neo-pragmatism. This criticism uses the argument of performative contradiction as it has developed in the European Neo-Kantian philosophy. Thus, I begin by presenting Apel's arguments which are contrary the perspective of the detranscendentalization of the Post-Nietzschenian philosophy. I conclude that analytical philosophy is a fecund point of contact between Maturana's biology and American Pragmatism, and that analytic arguments help convince others of our own theoretical preferences.