Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Zsolt Virágos: Some Observations on Myth and Practical' Pragmatism in American Culture

ZSOLT VIRÁGOS SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MYTH AND 'PRACTICAL' PRAGMATISM IN AMERICAN CULTURE Before focusing on the major issues addressed here, it may be necessary to sort out in what special senses the concept of myth and that of pragmatism are going to be used in the present context. Let me begin with the latter. By pragmatism I simply mean the American philosophy of pragmatism, an intellectual development that surfaced in the post-Civil War era, with the undeclared but optimistic intention of providing Americans with a more viable sense of reality. The collective output of the first generation of pragmatic philosophers, the well-known triumvirate Peirce, James, and Dewey, explored segments of this reality as diverse as human psychology, education, religious experience, social and political philosophy. However, I am not going to be concerned with favorite pragmatic issues like behavioristic semantics or empirical psychology; I will be preoccupied here with the pragmatic concept and theory of truth. As regards myth, it must be decided from the outset whether it will denote in this discussion an archaic, ancient phenomenon or a modern one, i.e., modern in the sense that it is roughly contemporaneous with the active phase of a given social milieu and cultural fabric. In the present discussion it is in this latter, still rather broad, context that I am going to use the concept. To be a bit more specific, cultural or social myths will be conceived of as self-justifying intellectual constructs which explain, rationalize, justify, legit137