ABSTRACT
In the American context, the two most formative figures in the early history of pragmatism were hostile to the social Darwinism that sometimes seemed ubiquitous elsewhere in the culture. The science of Darwin and the social ethics of Spencer had given Americans what seemed to be a gloomy and depressing world in which to live. With the development of pragmatism, America achieved the sort of indigenous thought for which Emerson had called in the 1830s. Pragmatism had an occasional adherent in Europe, but what it had that was more important was influence: ideas genuinely original in America influenced Europeans and soon Asians as well. Europeans were entangled in class and metaphysical systems that were inappropriate for American democracy and the pragmatists were trying to achieve a means of procedure which eliminated them. William James' childhood provided an excellent example of the strains involved in growing up creative in America.
