ABSTRACT
To the Left, the pragmatist is an apologist for the status quo who refuses to come to the aid of the oppressed. For the Right, the pragmatist is a nihilist whose main concern is with sophistry. The Enlightenment transformed the common law from merely an auxiliary service with a spotty record, mainly available to the privileged and the wealthy, into an ideal of universal justice which could work for the poor as well as the rich. Positivism and Kantianism bank on the concept of refinement, but pragmatism rejects this approach. Pragmatists adopted the Darwinian metaphors of organic change, mutation and niche finding. Political theorist Harvey Mansfield once referred to John Dewey as a "medium-size malefactor", as a potential talent ultimately of no consequence because of his quest to take the jurisdiction for truth away from philosophers and deliver it into the hands of the community.
