What Does China Mean for Pragmatism?

Abstract

On October, 4th, 1914 the New York Times published an appeal to 'the civilized world' signed by about one hundred influential German artists and intellectuals. The manifesto was intended to protest against 'the lies and calumnies' that were thrown at their country by those whom they referred to as 'our enemies'-that is, the Allies led by British and French governments and presses. The appeal's signatories-who proudly proclaimed themselves 'heralds of truth'-dismissed the accusations of cruelty and illegitimate use of violence by the German army as well as any charge that Germany was responsible for the war, and argued that, for historical reasons, militarism was a distinctive feature of German culture. Dewey was strongly impressed by the content of the manifesto. As is well known, his most elaborated answer to the issue of Germanism was outlined in German Philosophy and Politics, originally published in 1915 (and then significantly reprinted in 1942). In this extremely controversial little book, Dewey argued rather surprisingly that the origin of German militarism should be sought not in Nietzsche's philosophy of power-as many contemporary interpreters were inclined to do-but in Kant's thought with its distinction between phenomena and noumena. If one looked more closely to the German culture, Dewey remarked, one could not escape from the impression that "the chief mark of distinctively German civilization is its combination of self-conscious idealism with unsurpassed technical efficiency and organization in the varied fields of action": "[i]f this What Does China Mean for Pragmatism?