ABSTRACT
Since this monograph discusses the role of poetic agency for pragmatism, Nietzsche’s “artistic refashioning of mankind” and his notion of “Dichtung” (poetry) are particularly stimulating and useful. This chapter discusses the question of whether Nietzsche is a constructivist. This endeavor to approach Nietzsche’s constructivism leads to an analysis of the question of whether there is common ground between the tradition of transcendental idealism and the pragmatist tradition. In view of the pragmatists’ critique of Kant’s metaphysics and formalism, the questions must be posed: Is it possible to theorize a Kantian pragmatism? And could this Kantian version of pragmatism be compatible with a pragmatist humanism? In this chapter, the author contends that a Kantian brand of pragmatism is incompatible with his endeavor to bring together pragmatism, humanism, anti-authoritarianism, and postmetaphysics and thereby to continue the antirepresentationalist and antifoundationalist story of progress and emancipation. The chapter closes with a brief discussion of Hilary Putnam’s critique of Rorty’s understanding of metaphysical realism.
