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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

220765

Eastern European Context

Alexander KrémerWojciech MaleckiEmil Visnovsky

pp. 312-320

Abstract

Reception is always interpretation, and interpretation is always embedded into the sociocultural environment of the given society. Reception of philosophical ideas depends on the prevailing ideologies and mechanisms that structure the social and cultural field of the recipient society. This is especially true in the case of foreign authors and philosophies. We also have to take into account that pragmatism never was a unified and canonized philosophical movement. Only some common philosophical principles (naturalism, empiricism, meliorism, the priority of practice over theory, anti-essentialism, etc.) have drawn together several philosophers in a loosely organized philosophical movement. This is provable not only in connection with the old but also regarding the new pragmatism. What is more, Eastern-Europe is not a unified social field. Eastern-European societies have very complex and fairly different sociocultural structures and historical heritages. It follows that the reception to be described shows significant country-by-country-differences in the region. It is, thus, reasonable to separate those countries where we cannot speak of a significant reception of pragmatism from those countries where we can find one. Countries belonging to the first group (and that does not mean that there are no translations of pragmatist authors and a couple of papers about their works) are: Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia and its successor states. To the second group belong: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Soviet Union/Russia; in these countries we can find a serious reception of pragmatism, especially from the 1990s on, after their regime changes.

Publication details

Published in:

Festl Michael (2018) Handbuch Pragmatismus. Stuttgart, Metzler.

Pages: 312-320

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-04557-7_42

Full citation:

Krémer Alexander, Malecki Wojciech, Visnovsky Emil (2018) „Eastern European Context“, In: M. Festl (Hrsg.), Handbuch Pragmatismus, Stuttgart, Metzler, 312–320.