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The relationship between pragmatism and Darwinism is complex. On the one hand, pragmatism is the first philosophical tradition to take seriously Darwin's theory of evolution. On the other hand, how seriously and in what way(s) a pragmatist takes the theory varies significantly. Furthermore, a distinction must be maintained between Darwin's theory of evolution as a scientific theory and a philosophy based on that theory called Darwinism. As is the case with pragmatism itself, Darwinism does not lend itself to easy characterization. For present purposes, the distinction between Darwin's scientific theory and the philosophical positions that take the science as foundational will be made explicit. In this overview of Darwin(ism) in the development of pragmatism, from its inception in the Metaphysical Club to the present day, this distinction is made clear and elaborated upon in order to show that the relationship between science and philosophy remains a central question for pragmatism.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-04557-7_31

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