Three practices of humanism and critical pragmatism

摘要

A central question animates humanism as I understand it - as the heartbeat of a critical pragmatism: "How can we not just interpret but improve our lives?" That foundational question is perpetually open, not closed, ambiguously political regarding who "we" can be, and ethically presuming we might "improve" our lives. Without safeguarding a critical humanism and pragmatism, we risk the temptations of technocracy with the dangerous satisfactions of the caricature, "the operation was a success, but the patient died."