[quote=briansd1]Here’s an interesting book on Obama as a philosopher president.
I’m a pragmatist myself and I can relate.
History will tell…
In New York City last week to give a standing-room-only lecture about his forthcoming intellectual biography, “Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Tradition,” Mr. Kloppenberg explained that he sees Mr. Obama as a kind of philosopher president, a rare breed that can be found only a handful of times in American history.
“There’s John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams, then Abraham Lincoln and in the 20th century just Woodrow Wilson,” he said.
To Mr. Kloppenberg the philosophy that has guided President Obama most consistently is pragmatism, a uniquely American system of thought developed at the end of the 19th century by William James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce. It is a philosophy that grew up after Darwin published his theory of evolution and the Civil War reached its bloody end. More and more people were coming to believe that chance rather than providence guided human affairs, and that dogged certainty led to violence.
Pragmatism maintains that people are constantly devising and updating ideas to navigate the world in which they live; it embraces open-minded experimentation and continuing debate. “It is a philosophy for skeptics, not true believers,” Mr. Kloppenberg said.
[/quote]
Brian: Uh-huh. Yeah, I definitely see Obama as cast in that mold, too. There is no evidence to support it, of course, but sure.
In true Brian fashion, you completely ignored the part about Obama continuing Bush’s policies. Is that pragmatic, too? Now, if you say that it is pragmatic, that would lend credence to Bush’s policies being correct. If its not pragmatism, then Obama is indeed a right-wing establishmentarian.
So? Which is it? Simple enough question, but will you answer it?
