News from Abroad

Abstract

As usual, there has been a good deal of interest in Germany in the classical philosophers, especially in Whitehead and Peirce, but also in classical pragmatism in general. Richard Bernstein spent two months teaching at the Johann Goethe Universitat in Frankfurt in the Spring of 1988. philosophy department has invited a foreign visitor each Spring. Previous visitors have been Charles Taylor, John Searle, and Thomas McCarthy. Bernstein taught two courses: American Pragmatism and an advanced seminar, The Ethical Political Horizon of Postmodernity. In addition, Jiirgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel held a special seminar in which the three dealt with themes from Bernstein's book, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Bernstein also participated in a colloquium that Habermas gives for postgraduate students and visiting faculty. His personal observations concerning his visit are quite enthusiastic. He found the intellectual climate in Frankfurt extremely intense and exciting, the students excellent, and the interest in philosophy very strong. That there is already a great deal of interest and sophistication about philosophy, especially the pragmatic tradition, he at tributes in part to the lively interest of Apel and Habermas. There is also an excellent Studies program at Frankfurt with a strong emphasis in philosophy. There are regular seminars dealing with Mead, Dewey, Peirce, and Royce. Several students are writing masters theses on philosophers. What most impressed him was that classical phi losophers are taken seriously as philosophers. He found a greater interest in