ABSTRACT
This chapter recovers a substream in the history of ideas that has recognized not only the persistence of error, but the primacy of practice over theory. It tracees the development of pragmatism from ancient through modern to contemporary conceptions of the relationship between theory and practice, reemphasizes the place of communication in translating back and forth between the two endeavors in the pursuit of justice and other important social ends. The chapter addresses the turn of modern philosophy toward one prototypical scientific method – a shift from a contemplation of the cosmos toward the control of nature. Bronze is a particular quality of matter, extracted from other matter and refined in a process requiring considerable material and mental resources. American pragmatism, on the one hand, recovered classic conceptions of theory and practice, recognizing theories as conceptual means to practical ends.
