Classical Pragmatism and its Varieties: On a Pluriform Metatheoretical Perspective for Knowledge Organization

Thomas M Dousa

doi:10.7152/nasko.v2i1.12809

Abstract

Pragmatism is a metatheoretical perspective within knowledge organization (KO) deriving from an American philosophical tradition active since the late 19th century. Its core feature is commitment to the evaluation of the adequacy of concepts and beliefs through the empirical test of practice: this entails epistemological antifoundationalism, fallibilism, contingency, social embeddedness, and pluralism. This article reviews three variants of Pragmatism historically influential in philosophy—Pierce’s scientifically oriented pragmaticism, James’s subjectivist practicalism; and Dewey’s socially-directed instrumentalism—and indicates points of contact with KO theories propounded by Bliss, Shera, and Hjørland. KO applications of classical Pragmatism have tended to converge toward a socially pluralist model characteristic of Dewey. Recently, Rorty’s epistemologically radical brand of Neopragmatism has found adherents within KO: whether it provides a more advantageous metatheoretical framework than classical Pragmatism remains to be seen.

Highlights

In recent years, researchers within library and information science (LIS) have increasingly come to reflect on the field’s metatheories—i.e., the sets of general philosophical assumptions underlying individual theories and practices—in the hope of identifying perspectives especially fruitful for guiding research and practice within the field (e.g., Hjørland 1998, Bates 2005)
Concluding Remarks: Whither Pragmatism in knowledge organization (KO)? As we have seen, Peircean pragmaticism, Jamesian practicalism, and Deweyan instrumentalism constitute three classical forms of Pragmatism, differing in their respective views of the scope of application of the Pragmatic method, the level of communal association at which it is most efficacious, the degree to which human knowledge is objective vis-à-vis external realities, and the nature of the truth claims arising from human experience of the world
Within KO, researchers adopting Pragmatist perspectives have tended to incline towards the socially pluralist model articulated by Dewey and championed by Hjørland: even those who explicitly invoke Jamesian (Shera 1965) or Peircean (Thellefsen 2004; Thellefsen & Thellefsen 2004) theories and methods deem the knowledge domain as the most appropriate level toward which to orient knowledge organization systems (KOSs)

Summary

Introduction

Researchers within library and information science (LIS) have increasingly come to reflect on the field’s metatheories—i.e., the sets of general philosophical assumptions underlying individual theories and practices—in the hope of identifying perspectives especially fruitful for guiding research and practice within the field (e.g., Hjørland 1998, Bates 2005).

Results

Conclusion