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Pragmatism and Ethnicity: Critique, Reconstruction, and the New Hispanic
Author(s) -
Medina José
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
metaphilosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1467-9973
pISSN - 0026-1068
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2004.00309.x
Subject(s) - pragmatism , ethnic group , epistemology , race (biology) , politics , sociology , identity (music) , philosophy , aesthetics , anthropology , gender studies , political science , law
In this essay I examine the contributions of the pragmatist tradition to the philosophy of ethnicity. From the pragmatist philosophies of Dewey and Locke I derive a reconstructive model for the clarification and improvement of the life experiences of ethnic groups. Addressing various problems and objections, I argue that this Deweyan and Lockean reconstructive model rejects any sharp separation between race and ethnicity and avoids the pitfalls of the biologist race paradigm and the culturalist ethnicity paradigm. I explore some of the social and political implications of this reconstructive model through a discussion of José Martí's inspiring account of Hispanic identity.