8-Bit Philosophy: Is The American Dream A Sham? (Fun With Pragmatism)

As noted in the video, pragmatism is the quintessential American philosophy. It is also quite the punching bag for Christian thought. In particular, Richard Rorty takes the brunt of the blows, and I wouldn’t disagree that he deserves some of them. On the other hand, James K. A. Smith is optimistic that we can benefit from Rorty’s thought and wrote Who’s Afraid of Relativism?: Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood to try to make that case. I’m still deciding what I think about his argument and need to mull it over a bit more. My gut instinct is that there is some truth to the case Smith makes, but he is more optimistic about the value of American pragmatism than I think I can be.