Pragmatism and the
Intellectual Development
of American Public
Administration
by
Keith F. Snider
Degree: PH.D.
Year: 1997
Pages: 00174
Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State
University; 0247
Advisor: Orion F. White, Jr.
Source: DAI, 58, no. 03A, (1997): 1086
Histories
of public administration's early intellectual development have little to report
on the influences of pragmatism as developed by philosophers such as Charles
Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. This dissertation contributes to
the literature of the history of public administration by documenting this
"slighting" and assessing its consequences. The dissertation
concludes that public administration does indeed have a heritage in pragmatism,
but this heritage does not emanate directly from the philosophical pragmatism
of Peirce, James, or Dewey. Rather, it is found in the disguised or silent
pragmatism of Mary Parker Follett, the popularized, corrupted, and nominal
pragmatisms of Charles A. Beard and Herbert Simon, and the implicit pragmatism
of Dwight Waldo. The discovery of this heritage of "hidden"
pragmatism carries with it significant implications for the way we think about
public administration as a field of study. Mostimportantly, it means that we
have a distorted and incomplete view of our past. Our failure to understand the
heritage of pragmatism means that we cannot see pragmatism as a legitimate alternative
to the positivism and behavioralism that dominate contemporary mainstream
public administration.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: POLITICAL SCIENCE, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
HISTORY, UNITED
STATES
PHILOSOPHY
Accession
No: AAG9726305
Provider: OCLC
Database: Dissertations