Education:Bernstein, Richard J., 1932- The Vera List Professor
New School University
A.B., University of Chicago, 1951
B.S., Columbia, 1953 (summa cum laude)
M.A., Yale, 1955
PhD, Yale, 1958
Honors:
The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for 2002-2003
Richard J. Bernstein, The New School
AVAILABLE: Mondays-Tuesdays, 2002-2003, in accordance with requests.
Richard J. Bernstein, recipient of five distinguished teaching awards, is Vera List Professor of Philosophy. He taught at Haverford College for twenty-three years, 1966-89, and has been a visiting professor at Frankfurt University, Hebrew University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Bernstein is the author of Freud and the Legacy of Moses; Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question; The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity; Philosophical Profiles: Essays in a Pragmatic Mode; Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics and Praxis; The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory; Praxis and Action; and Radical Evil: A Philosophical Interrogation (spring 2002).
He is past president of the Metaphysical Society of America, the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division), and the Charles S. Peirce Society, and recipient of the John Dewey Society Award for Outstanding Achievement. He was the 1995 American Philosophical Association Romanell Lecturer. For the past few years, his research has focused on a philosophical understanding of the character of evil in the twentieth century. He is also engaged in a reinterpretation of twentieth-century philosophy as The Pragmatic Century.
Richard J. Bernstein
Department of Philosophy
Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science
New School University
65 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003
Tel:
Fax: (212) 807-1669
Email: BernsteR@newschool.edu
Date of Birth
May 14, 1932.
Degrees
1949-51 The University of Chicago, A.B. 1951, Honors in Philosophy.
1951-53 Columbia University, B.S. 1953, summa cum laude.
1953-55 Yale University, M.A. 1955.
1955-58 Yale University, Ph.D. 1958.
Dissertation Title: "John Dewey's Metaphysics of Experience."
Teaching Positions
1954-57 Instructor in Philosophy, Yale University.
1957-58 Fulbright Lecturer, Hebrew University.
1958-63 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Yale University.
1963-65 Associate Professor of Philosophy, Yale University.
1965-66 Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Hebrew University.
1966-78 Professor of Philosophy, Haverford College.
1966-78 Chair, Department of Philosophy, Haverford College.
1974 Spring - Visiting Professor, Catholic University of America.
1975 Spring - Visiting Professor, University of Pennsylvania.
1979-89 T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy, Haverford College.
1981-83 Visiting Adjunct Professor, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research.
1988 Spring - Visiting Professor, Frankfurt University.
1989 Vera List Professor, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research; Chair, Department of Philosophy.
Awards, Activities and Editorial Positions
Phi Beta Kappa, 1953.
Tew Prize in Philosophy, Yale University, 1954.
Morse Fellowship, Yale University, 1961-62.
President, Fullerton Club, 1967-68.
Secretary-Treasurer, Charles S. Peirce Society, 1967-68.
President, Charles S. Peirce Society, 1969.
Executive Committee, Eastern Division of American Philosophical Association, 1968-70.
Assistant Editor, Review of Metaphysics, 1961-64.
Editor, Review of Metaphysics, 1964-71.
Winner of E. Harris Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching, 1970.
Senior Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1972-73.
Editorial Boards, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society; Journal of Value Inquiry.
Pennsylvania Commission for Distinguished Teaching, 1976.
Vice-President, Philosophy Education Society (publisher of the Review of Metaphysics).
A.C.L.S. Fellowship, 1978-79.
Co-Director, "Philosophy and Social Science," Inter-University Centre for Post-graduate Studies, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, 1977-84.
Nominating Committee, Eastern Division of American Philosophical Association, 1979-81.
Editor-in-chief, Praxis International, 1980-84.
Christian and Mary Lindback Foundation Distinguished Teachers Award, 1982-83.
Enabling Committee for Rebuilding The Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research,1984-88.National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1985-86.
Vice-President, Metaphysical Society of America, 1986-87.
President, Metaphysical Society of America, 1987-88.
Vice-President, President-elect, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, 1987.
President, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, 1988.
Governor's Appointment, Pennsylvania Council of Humanities, 1988.
President, Adirondack Work/Study, Inc., 1990-present.
Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers, Baylor University, 1991.
John Dewey Society Award for Outstanding Achievement, 1995.
A.P.A. Patrick Romanell Lecturer, 1995.
Fellow, Franz Rosenzweig Research Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Spring 1997.
Publications
BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS
With M. Eson. A Study of Some Aspects of Education in Israel. Jerusalem: Ministry of Education Press, 1958. (Published in Hebrew, copy of English translation available.)
John Dewey: On Experience, Nature, and Freedom, ed. R.J. Bernstein. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1960. (Reprint: Arno Press).
John Dewey, The Great American Thinkers Series. New York: Washington Square Press, 1966. (Reprint: Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview Publishing Co., 1981).
Perspectives on Peirce, ed. R.J. Bernstein. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965. (Reprint: Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980. Japanese translation: Bokutaku Publishing Company, 1985).
"The Philosophy of Paul Weiss, Twenty-Fifth Year Supplement," ed. R.J. Bernstein. Review of Metaphysics 25 (June 1972).
Praxis and Action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
(British edition: London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1972. German translation: Praxis and Handlen (with new Introduction). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1975. Spanish translation: Praxis y accion. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1979).The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976. (Paperback edition: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977. British editions: Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1976. British paperback: London: Methuen & Co., 1979. German translation: Restrukturierung der Gesellschaftstheorie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1979. Italian translation: La Ristrutturazione della Teoria Sociale e Politica. Rome: Armando Armando, 1980. Spanish translation: La Reestructuracion de la Theoria Social y Politica. Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1983. Chinese translation: forthcoming).
Beyond 0bjectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics and Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. (British edition: Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983. (Swedish translation: Bortom Objektivism och Relativism: Vetenskap, hermeneutik och praxis. Gobtenberg: Roda Bokfôrlaget, 1987. Japanese translation. Translations in Korean and Spanish forthcoming).
Habermas and Modernity, ed. with an introduction by R.J. Bernstein. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (Polity Press), 1985. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985. Spanish translation: Habermas y la Modernidad. Catedra: coleccion teorema, 1988. Japanese translation forthcoming).
Philosophical Profiles: Essays in a Pragmatic Mode. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (Polity Press), 1986. (U.S. edition: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
Philosophical Profiles brings together ten important essays by Richard Berstein. Each focuses on the work of a thinker or group of thinkers at the center of contemporary developments in philosophy, including Hannah Arendt, John Dewey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jurgen Habermas, G.W.F. Hegel, Alasdair MacIntyre, Herbert Marcuse, and Richard Rorty.The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernityl Postmodernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. Italian translation: La nuova costellazione: Gli orizzonti etico-politici del, modernolpostmoderno. Milan:
Feltrinelli, 1994. Bulgarian, Korean and Japanese translations).Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).
Freud and the Vexed Legacy of Moses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
ARTICLES, REVIEWS AND MISCELLANEOUS
1956
"Decision and Indecision in Contemporary Empiricism." Ideas, 5/4 (1956).
1958
"Education in Israel." Ha' aretz, 16 July 1958 (Tel Aviv, Israel). (English translation available.)
1959
"Dewey's Naturalism." Review of Metaphysics, 13/2 (1959): 340-53.
1960
"Knowledge, Value, and Freedom." In John Dewey and the Experimental Spirit in Philosophy, ed. Charles Hendel. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1960.
"Packaged Wisdom." The Commonweal, 22 April 1960.
"John Dewey's Metaphysics of Experience." Journal of Philosophy, 57/1 (1961): 5-14.
"The Thought of Stuart Hampshire." A Discussion of Thought and Action, by Stuart Hampshire. Commentary 31 /3 (March 1961): 262-4.
"Charles Sanders Peirce and the Nation." Antioch Review 21 /2 (Spring 1961): 15-25. (Reprinted in The Nation, 22 March 1965. Reprinted in Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to the Nation, Part One 1869-1893. Compiled and ed. K.L. Ketner and J.E. Cook. Lubbock, TX: Graduate Studies of Texas Technical University, 1975).
"Natural Law and a National Consensus." Review of We Hold These Truths, by John Courtney Murray. New Leader, 22 May 1961.
"A Double-Edged Logic." Review of The Quest for Being, by Sidney Hook. Saturday Review, 22 July 1961.
"Fromm's Concept of Marx." Review of Marx's Concept of Man, by Erich Fromm. New Leader, 2 October 1961.
"Wittgenstein's Three Languages." Review of Metaphysics, 15/2 (1961): 278-98. (Reprinted in Wittgenstein's Tractatus, ed. I. Copi and R. Beard. New York: MacMillan, 1966).
1962
Review of American Pragmatism, by Edward C. Moore. Journal of Philosophy, 59/10 (1962): 272-4.
1963
"Undergraduate Education Today: Philosophy." Yale Alumni Magazine, (January 1963).
Review of The Predicament of Democratic Man, by Edmond Cahn. Yale Law Journal 72/6 (1963).
"Post-Wittgensteinian Dilemmas." Review of Reason and Conduct, by Henry Aiken. Commentary, 35/6 (June 1963): 547-50.
"The Marxist Revival." Occasional Stiles, 2 (September 1962): 106-15. (Published by Exra Stiles College, Yale University.)
1964
"Professor Hart on Rules of Obligation." Mind, 73/292 (October 1964): 563-6.
"Peirce's Theory of Perception." In Studies in the Philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, Second Series, ed. E.C. Moore and R. Robin. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1964.
"Action, Conduct, and Self-Control." In Perspectives on Peirce, (see list of books).
"Myths About the Mississippi Summer Project." The Nation, 28 December 1964.
Review of John Dewey and Self-Realization, by Robert J. Roth International Philosophical Quarterly, 4 (Fall 1964): 485-7.
1966
"Sellars' Vision of Man-in-the-World, Part I" Review of Metaphysics, 20/1 (1966): 113-43.
"Sellars' Vision of Man-in-the-World, Part II." Review of Metaphysics, 20/2 (1966): 290-316.
"John Dewey." In Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Paul Edwards. New York: MacMillan and the Free Press: 1966.
"The Challenge of Scientific Materialism" (Hebrew version). lyyun, 18/1-2 (1966).
1967
"Buckler's Metaphysics." Journal of Philosophy, 64/22 (1967): 751-70. (Reprinted in Nature's Perspectives: Prospects for Ordinal Metaphysics, ed. A. Marsoobian, K. Wallace, R.S. Corrington. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991).
Review of Lectures in the Philosophy of Education, by John Dewey. The Social Studies, 58/6 (November 1967): 284-6.
1968
"The Challenge of Scientific Materialism" (English version). International Philosophical Quarterly, 8/2 (1966): 252-75. (Reprinted in Materialism and the Mind-Body Problem, ed. David M. Rosenthal. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971).
1969
Review Symposium of Essays in Sociological Explanation, by Neil J. Smelser, with a response by Smelser. Sociological Inquiry, 39/2 (Spring 1969): 201-17.
"In Defense of American Philosophy." In Contemporary American Philosophy, Second Series, ed. J.E. Smith. New York: Humanities Press, 1970.
"An Interview by Richard Bernstein: Paul Weiss' Recollections of Editing the Peirce Papers." Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 6/3-4 (Summer-Fall 1970).
From 1960 through 1970 numerous short reviews of books published in the Review of Metaphysics.
1971
Introduction to paperback edition of William James, Essays in Radical Empiricism and A Pluralistic Universe. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1971.
"Herbert Marcuse: An Immanent Critique." Social Theory and Practice, 1/4 (Fall 1971): 97-111.
1972
Critical review of The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, by Alvin Gouldner. Sociological Inquiry, 42/1 (1972): 65-72.
"Introductory Remarks" to "The Philosophy of Paul Weiss, Twenty-Fifth Year Supplement," ed. R.J. Bernstein. Review of Metaphysics, 25 (June 1972): 4-7.
1973
"The Frankfurt School." Critical review of The Dialectical Imagination, by Martin Jay. Midstream, (August-September 1973): 55-66.
1974
"Author's Response," Symposium on Praxis and Action. Philosophy Forum, 14/2 (1974): 171-194
1975
Review of Hegel's Theory of the Modern State, by Shlomo Avineri; and Hegel, by Raymond Plant. Political Theory, 3/3 (August 1975): 344-52.
Review of The Legacy of Hegel: Proceedings of the Marquette Hegel Symposium, 1970. The Owl of Minerva: Quarterly Publication of the Hegel Society of America (1975).
1977
Introduction to William James, A Pluralistic Universe: The Works of William James, ed. Frederick Burkhardt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.
"Hannah Arendt: The Ambiguities of Theory and Practice." In Political Theory and Praxis: New Perspectives, ed. Terrence Ball. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
Review of The Life of the Mind, by Hannah Arendt. Sunday Book Review Section, New York Times, 28 May 1977.
Review of The Moon and the Ghetto: An Essay on Public Policy Analysis, by Richard R. Nelson. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 July 1977.
* "Why Hegel Now?" Critical Study of Hegel, by Charles Taylor. Review of Metaphysics, 31/1 (1977): 29-60.
1979
"Thinking Through Critical Theory." Review of The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas, by Thomas McCarthy. Review of Politics, 41/2 (1979): 298-301.
"Kant, Hegel, and Ayer vs. Abraham." Review of Encounters Between Judaism and Modern Philosophy, by Emil Fackenheim. Midstream, 25/10 (December 1979): 62-4.
1980
"Comment on the Relationship of Habermas's Views to Hegel." In Hegel's Social and Political Thought, ed. D.P. Verene. New York: Humanities Press, 1980.
* "Philosophy and the Conversation of Mankind." Critical Study of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, by Richard Rorty.
Review of Metaphysics, 33/4 (1980): 745-75.( Reprinted in Hermeneutics and Praxis, ed. Robert Hollinger. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986).
Review of Main Currents of Marxism: It's Rise, Growth, and Dissolution, by L. Kolakowski. Review of Metaphysics, 33/3 (1980): 635-7.
* "Herbert Marcuse -- Negativity: Theme and Variations." Praxis International 1/1 (1980): 87-100.
Review of Transformation of Philosophy, by Karl-Otto Apel. Political Theory 9/3 (1980): 43-47.
Introduction to English translation of Karl-Otto Apel, Charles S. Peirce: From Pragmatism to Pragmaticism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.
* "From Hermeneutics to Praxis." Review of Metaphysics, 35/4 (June 1982): 823-45. (Reprinted in Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy, ed. Bruce R. Wachterhauser. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986. Reprinted in Hermeneutics and Praxis, ed. Robert Hollinger. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986).
* "Hannah Arendt: Judging -- The Actor and the Spectator." In Proceedings of History, Ethics, Politics: A Conference Based on the Work of Hannah Arendt, ed. R. Boyers. Saratoga Springs, NY: Empire State College, 1982.
"Human Beings: Plurality and Togetherness." Critical study of You, I, and the Others, by Paul Weiss. Review of Metaphysics, 35/4 June 1982): 349-66. Reprinted in Festschrift for Paul Weiss, 1987.
* "What is the Difference that Makes a Difference? Gadamer, Habermas, Rorty." Proceedings of the Philosophy Science Association, ed. P.D. Asquith and T. Nickles, 2 (1983). (Reprinted in Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy, ed. Robert Hollinger. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. Hebrew translation: In Between Theory and Practice, ed. Y. Yovel and P. Mendes-Flohr. Jerusalem: Magnus Press, 1984).
1984
* "Nietzsche or Aristotle?" Reflections on After Virtue, by Alasdair MacIntyre, with a reply by Maclntyre. Soundings, 67/1 (1984): 6-20 (MacIntyre's reply: 30-41).
1985
* "Heidegger on Humanism." Praxis International 5 (July 1985): 95-114. (Reprinted in Pragmatism Considers Phenomenology, ed. Robert S. Corrington, Carl Hausmann, Thomas Seebohm. Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America, 1987).
* "Dewey, Democracy: The Task Ahead of Us." In Post Analytic Philosophy, ed. John Rajchman and Cornel West. New York. Columbia University Press, 1985.
"The Question of Moral and Social Development." In Value Presuppositions in Theories of Human Development, ed. L. Cirillo and S. Wapner. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986.
* "Rethinking the Social and the Political." Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 11/1 (1986): 111-30.
" Structuration as Critical Theory." Praxis International, 6/2 (1986): 235-49.
" The Rage Against Reason." Philosophy and Literature 10/2 (October 1986): 186-210. (Reprinted in Construction and Constraint, ed. Ernan McMullin. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988).
" The Meaning of Public Life." In Religion and American Public Life, ed. Robin W. Lovin. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
"Philosophy: A Historical Discipline?" In At the Nexus of Philosophy History, ed. Bernard P. Davenhauer. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987.
Serbo-Croatian translation: "Filozofija: Istorijska Disciplina?" In Filozofija i Drustvo, ed. Mihailu Markovicu. Beograd: Center za filozofiju: drustvenu teoriju, 1987. (Norwegian translation).
"Agnes Heller: Philosophy, Rational Utopia and Praxis." Thesis Eleven 16 (1987): 22-39. (Reprinted in The Social Philosophy of Agnes Heller, ed. John Burnheim. Atlanta: Rodophi Press, 1994).
"Serious Play: The Ethical-Political Horizon of Jacques Derrida." Journal of Speculative Philosophy 1/2 (1987): 93-117. (Reprinted in The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. Serbo-Croation translation: "Ozbiljna lgra: Eticko-Politicka Horizont Zak Derida." Gledista 5-6).
"One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: Rorty on Liberal Democracy and Philosophy." Political Theory, 15/4 (November 1987): 538-630. (French translation: "Un pas en avant, deux pas en arrvère: la democratie libérale wt la philosophie selon Richard Rorty." Futor antérieur (1992)).
"The Varieties of Pluralism." American Journal of Education, 95/4 (August 1987): 509-525.
1988
"Interpretation and its Discontents: The Choreography of Critique"; "Making a Difference: A Plea for Differences -- A Reply to Adolf Grunbaum." Both articles in Hermeneutics and Psychological Theory, ed. S. Messer, L. Sass, R. Woolfolk. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
Review of Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, by Alisdair MacIntyre. Commonweal, 20 May
1988
"Critical Inquiry, Civic Friendship and the Pursuit of Community." Texas Journal 10, (Spring-Summer 1988).
"Metaphysics, Critique, and Utopia," Presidential Address to Metaphysical Society of America.
Review of Metaphysics, 42/2 (December 1988): 255-74.
"Fred Dallmayr's Critique of Habermas." Political Theory, 16/4 (November 1988): 580-93.
"Hermeneutics and Its Anxieties." In Hermeneutics and the Tradition, ed. Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 62 (1988).
1989
"Radical Plurality, Fearful Ambiguity, and Engaged Hope." Review of Plurality and Ambiguity, by David Tracy. The Journal of Religion, 69 (January 1989): 85-91.
"Foucault: Critique as a Philosophic Ethos." In Zwischenbetrachtungen Im Prozess der Aujklarung, ed. A. Honneth, T. McCarthy, C. Offe, A. Wellmer. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1989.
"Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Healing of Wounds," Presidential Address, A.P.A. Eastern Division. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 63/3 (1989): 5-18.
"Social Theory as Critique." In Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and his Critics, ed. D. Held and J.B. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
"Interpretation and Solidarity: An Interview with Richard Bernstein by Dunja Melcic." Praxis International, 9 (October 1989):201-219.
1990
" Rorty's Liberal Utopia." Social Research, 57 (Spring 1990): 31-72.
"The Lure of the Ideal." In Peirce and Law, ed. Roberta Kavelson. New York: Peter Lang, 1990. (Portuguese translation: "A seduç do ideal." Revista de Semiôtica a Communiçado 3/2: 195-206).
1991
"Does Philosophy Matter?" The New School Commentator 2/6 (March 1991): 1-4. (Reprinted in Thinking: A Journal of Philosophy of Children 9/4 (1991)).
"Una revision de las conexiones entre incommensurabilidad y ortredad." Isegorfa, Revista de Filosofia Moral y Politica, 3 (April 1991): 5-25. (Spanish translation of "Incommensurability and Otherness Revisited.")
"John Dewey: Philosopher of Democracy." Critical study of John Dewey and American Democracy, by Robert Westbrook. Intellectual History Newsletter, 13 (September 1991): 48-55.
1992
"Reconciliation and Rupture: The Challenge and Threat of Otherness." In Discourse and Practice, ed. Frank Reynolds and David Tracy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
"The Resurgence of American Pragmatism." Social Research, 59 (Winter 1992): 813-840. (Spanish translation: "El Resurgir del Pragmatismo." In El Giro Posmoderno, ediciôn a cargo de José Rubio Carracedo. Malagra: Philosophica Malacitena, 1993).
Review of The Critique of Power, by Axel Honneth. Political Theory, 20 (August 1992): 523-7.
1993
"An Allegory of Modernity/Postmodernity: Habermas and Derrida." Reprinted in Working Through Derrida, ed. Gary B. Madison. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993.
"The ‘modern/postmodern’ debate." In Development and Modernity, ed. Lars Gule and Oddver Storebo. Bergen, Norway: Ariadne, 1993.
"Postmodernism, Dialogue and Democracy: Questions to Richard J. Bernstein." In Postmodern Contentions: Epochs, Politics, Space, ed. J. P. Jones, W. Walter, T. Schatzki. New York: Guilford Publications, 1992.
1994
"Hans Jonas: Rethinking Responsibility." Social Research, 61/4 (Winter 1994): 833-52. (Reprinted in the Hastings Journal).
"Linguistischer Idealismus bei Fraser and Gordon." In Auf der Suche nach der Gerecten Gesellschaft, Herausgegeben von Gunter Frankenberg. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994.
1995
American Pragmatism: The Conflict of Narratives." In Rorty and Pragmatism, ed. Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1995.
"Whatever Happened to Naturalism?" Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 69/2 (November 1995): 57-76.
"Are We Beyond the Enlightenment Horizon?" In Knowledge and Belief in America, ed.William M. Shea and Peter A. Huff. New York: Cambridge University Press (Woodrow Wilson Center), 1995.
1996
"The ‘Banality of Evil’ Reconsidered." In Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics, ed. Craig Calhoun and John McGowan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
"Did Hannah Arendt Change Her Mind? From Radical Evil to the Banality of Evil." In Hannah Arendt: 20 Years Later, ed. Jerome Kohn and Larry May. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
"The Retrieval of the Democratic Ethos" Cardozo Law Review, 17/4-5 (March 1996):1127-1146. (Printed also in Review of Japanese Culture and Society 7 (December 1995):1-12).
"The Hermeneutics of Cross-Cultural Understanding." In Cross-Cultural Conversation (Initiation), ed. Anindita Niyoga Balslev. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.
1997
"Hans Jonas's Mortality and Morality." Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 19/2-20/1 (1997): 315-321.
"Provocation and Appropriation: Hannah Arendt's Response to Martin Heidegger." Constellations, (1997).
FORTHCOMING
"Community: A Pragmatic Perspective."
"Listening and Responding to Levinas."
Research Interests
Richard Bernstein specializes in the study of American Pragmatism. Other areas of concentration include social and political philosophy; critical theory; and analytic philosophy.
Selected Publications"The Philosophy of Paul Weiss, Twenty-Fifth Year Supplement," ed. R.J. Bernstein. Review of Metaphysics 25 (June 1972).
Praxis and Action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
(British edition: London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1972. German translation: Praxis and Handlen (with new Introduction). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1975. Spanish translation: Praxis y accion. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1979).The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976. (Paperback edition: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977. British editions: Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1976. British paperback: London: Methuen & Co., 1979. German translation: Restrukturierung der Gesellschaftstheorie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1979. Italian translation: La Ristrutturazione della Teoria Sociale e Politica. Rome: Armando Armando, 1980. Spanish translation: La Reestructuracion de la Theoria Social y Politica. Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1983. Chinese translation: forthcoming).
Beyond 0bjectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics and Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. (British edition: Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983. (Swedish translation: Bortom Objektivism och Relativism: Vetenskap, hermeneutik och praxis. Gotenberg: Roda Bokfôrlaget, 1987. Japanese translation. Translations in Korean and Spanish forthcoming).
Habermas and Modernity, ed. with an introduction by R.J. Bernstein. Oxford: Basil Blackwell: (Polity Press), 1985. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985. Spanish translation: Habermas y la Modernidad. Catedra: coleccion teorema, 1988; Japanese translation forthcoming).
Philosophical Profiles: Essays in a Pragmatic Mode. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (Polity Press), 1986. (U.S. edition: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. Spanish translation: Perfiles filosoficus. Siglo vein tiuno editiones is. a. de c.v., 1991).
The New Constellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernityl Postmodernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. Italian translation: La nuova costellazione: Gli orizzonti etico-politici del, moderno/postmoderno. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1994. Bulgarian, Korean and Japanese translations).
Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996. (U.S. edition: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).
Freud and the Vexed Legacy of Moses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998
Articles appeared in New York Review of Books
Richard J. Bernstein
November 3, 1994: 'The Culture Wars': An Exchange
March 24, 1994: 'Guilty If Charged': An Exchange
January 13, 1994: Guilty If Charged
June 25, 1992: French Collaborators: The New Debate
December 6, 1984: CRACKDOWN IN YUGOSLAVIA
December 4, 1980: THE NEW PLIGHT OF THE PRAXIS PROFESSORS
The New York Review of Books
December 4, 1980Letter
THE NEW PLIGHT OF THE PRAXIS PROFESSORS
By Adolf Grünbaum, Charles H. Kahn, David Crocker, David Paul, Gary Bertsch, Gerald Holton, Gerson Sher, John P. Burke, Loren Graham, Lyman H. Legters, Paul Kurtz, Peter Caws, Ralph Miliband, Richard J. Bernstein, Richard Rorty, Richard Sens, Robert C. Tucker, Robert S. Cohen, Sidney Morgenbesser, Stanley Hoffmann, Thomas S. Kuhn, Victor Gourevitch
To the Editors:The plight of the Belgrade professors, members of the highly regarded Yugoslav Praxis group, is already quite well known in this country. Although strongly defended by members of their department, faculty, colleagues, and students throughout Yugoslavia, and by international scholars, they were suspended in 1975 from Belgrade University in the Republic of Serbia. This was the same year in which the journal Praxis was suppressed and the Korcula summer school discontinued by Yugoslav authorities. For ten years prior to 1975 both the journal and the Korcula summer school had served as an open and free forum for many of the leading Marxist and non-Marxist thinkers from Eastern and Western Europe including Herbert Marcuse, Lucien Goldmann, Ernst Bloch, Erich Fromm, Jurgen Habermas, Tom Bottomore, and Agnes Heller.
Although the Belgrade professors were suspended in 1975, they have continued to function as a group and have fought for their rights in Yugoslav courts. They remain loyal Yugoslav citizens, committed to Marxist humanism and to the ideals of socialist self-management. The suspension and continued harassment of the Belgrade professors remains a serious blemish on the record of a country that has, not only by its steadfast resistance to Soviet Diktat but also by its innovative approach to domestic affairs, aroused hopes for freedom and democratic socialism in Eastern Europe.
After the death of Tito last May, some of the Belgrade professors anticipated that a process of liberalization would take place. There was hope that the professors would be reinstated in the University with full rights to teach and publish in Yugoslavia. But on June 5, 1980, a new law was passed in the Republic of Serbia that is directed against the Belgrade group and will have the consequence of firing them by December, 1980, without any further right of legal appeal.
This change in the law specifies that individuals who have been suspended for a period of two years must either find new work within six months or lose all rights as employees. Seven Belgrade professors (Zagorka Golubovi?, Mihailo Markovi?, Dragoljub Micunovi?, Nebojsá Popov, Svetozar Stojanovi?, Ljubomir Tadi?, and Miladin Zitovi?) have for the past five years refused on principle to sever their tenuous connection with Belgrade University. They have refused to be intimidated and have fought a long legal battle for full reinstatement. We have recently received a moving summary of the legal appeal that they have made challenging the constitutionality of this latest change in the law. This most recent change (the law has been changed five times in the past five years) not only violates Yugoslav constitutional law, it clearly violates the international legal obligations that Yugoslavia has undertaken by signing the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the 1975 Helsinki Covenant on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Covenant of the International Confederation of Labor No. 111.
We are concerned that these circumstances should be widely known. We urge the appropriate authorities in the Republic of Serbia not only to repeal this new law, but to reinstate the Belgrade professors to their full rights as teachers and scholars at Belgrade University. We also urge all those who share our concern to communicate their support to the appropriate Yugoslav authorities. Letters may be sent to the Ambassador, Yugoslav Embassy, 2410 California Ave., N. W., Washington, DC 20008; the President of the Presidency of SR Serbia, Belgrade, Yugoslavia; and to the President of the Presidency of SFR Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Richard J. Bernstein, Haverford College; Gary Bertsch, University of Georgia; John P. Burke, University of Washington; Peter Caws, City University of New York; Robert S. Cohen, Boston University; David Crocker, Colorado State University; Victor Gourevitch, Wesleyan University; Adolf Grünbaum, University of Pittsburgh; Loren Graham, MIT; Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard University; Gerald Holton, Harvard University; Charles H. Kahn, University of Pennsylvania; Thomas S. Kuhn, MIT; Paul Kurtz, SUNY—Buffalo; Lyman H. Legters, University of Washington; Ralph Miliband, Brandeis University; Sidney Morgenbesser, Columbia University; David Paul, University of Washington; Richard Rorty, Princeton University; Richard Sens, MD, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute; Gerson Sher, McLean, Virginia; Robert C. Tucker, Princeton University
Books and Culture, July/August 1999
Philosophers respond to Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter,
Fides et Ratio
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RICHARD J. BERNSTEINI am writing this response to John Paul II's encyclical letter Fides et Ratio as a philosopher who does not believe that "the truth of Christian Revelation, found in Jesus of Nazareth" is "the absolute truth." Nevertheless, I find a great deal that is praiseworthy in this document, as well as many claims that are also extremely troubling. I do not want to criticize the letter from an "external" point of view but rather from an internal perspective, because I believe that even the most sympathetic reader ought to pay attention to the internal tensions and conflicts that it reveals. Let us keep in mind, in the spirit of generosity in which it is offered, that an encyclical letter is not a philosophical or theological treatise. The letter doesn't offer detailed arguments for the claims that it makes. It is rather a statement directed to "the bishops of the Catholic Church" that is intended to serve as guidance in understanding the relationship of faith and reason.
The very opening announces the major theme: "Faith and Reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth." The letter is a defense of the importance of reason and philosophy for any true believer. In this respect it articulates what many would consider the best in the Christian tradition—that there is no incompatibility between reason and faith, but rather an ultimate harmony. Faith is not op posed to reason; rather, it requires the full development of reason. And reason itself requires faith in order to strengthen, guide, and supplement its inherent limitations. The Christian has a supreme obligation to cultivate the full development of reason and to encourage the pursuit of philosophy. Reason that is not in formed by the true faith is itself deficient. The en cyclical sets forth a subtle relationship between faith and reason. Each is autonomous, yet they implicate each other, and in the final analysis they are harmonious. Although there are many paths to truth, there is an ultimate unity of truth. Philosophy cannot hope to attain the knowledge of faith that is given by revelation, but faith demands philosophy in order to understand itself. Consequently, true Christian theology and true philosophy are also compatible.
What is striking about this letter is its ecumenical and cosmopolitan spirit. It clearly recognizes that there are sources of wisdom that go far beyond the Catholic church. Christians and non-Christians, East and West, pagans and believers have all contributed to the journey for true knowledge—and their contributions must be acknowledged. The introduction to the letter does not begin with a citation from the Bible but rather from the pagan Delphic oracle: "Know Yourself." Even when the letter turns to a criticism of some of the "postmodern" tendencies in philosophy, it concedes that "the currents of thought which claim to be postmodern merit appropriate attention." Some of the sharpest criticisms are directed against fideism, which "fails to recognize the importance of rational knowledge and philosophical discourse for the understanding of faith, indeed for the very possibility of belief in God," and biblicalism, which "tends to make the reading and exegesis of Sacred Scripture the sole criterion of truth." Furthermore, "the study of philosophy is fundamental and in dispensable to the structure of theological studies." In short, a faith that fails to take philosophy and reason with full seriousness is not a true faith. This is a conviction that certainly can be shared by many religious believers, including Protestants, Jews, and Muslims.
The encyclical letter places the greatest emphasis on philosophical inquiry rather than on philosophical systems. The very language of the letter stresses the "search," "journey," "path," and "struggle" to attain the truth. There are many paths to truth, and many types of truth—including empirical, scientific, philosophical, metaphysical, and religious truth. When properly pursued, these different paths and types of truth are all compatible. The letter contains a strong defense of the need for philosophy to pursue metaphysics—"the need for a philosophy of genuinely metaphysical range, capable, that is, of transcending empirical data in order to attain something absolute, ultimate and foundational in its search for truth." At several points, John Paul II insists upon the autonomy of reason and of the need of philosophy to follow its own rules and methods without external interference.
This strong defense in support of the life of reason and philosophy is especially significant at the end of the twentieth century. Reason has been under attack from a variety of sources. There has been a prevailing suspicion that the appeal to reason functions as a deceptive mask for ruthless power; that all appeals to universality are disguises for violently suppressing cultural, ethnic, and religious differences; that reason is to be identified exclusively with technocratic reason. Philosophy as an academic discipline has been marginalized. It is no longer viewed as the queen of the sciences, or even as a discipline that can provide theoretical insight into reality or guide practical judgment. (We should not forget that the pope was trained as a philosopher.)
Not only is the letter critical of those fideistic tendencies that tend to undermine the role of philosophy and reason, it is just as critical of those contemporary philosophic tendencies that speak of the "end of metaphysics" and "the end of philosophy." As the letter states, "Rather than make use of the human capacity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to concentrate on the ways in which this capacity is limited and conditioned." This has given rise to "different forms of agnosticism and relativism which have led philosophical research to lose its way in the shifting sands of widespread skepticism."
In this respect, the encyclical is not only a statement about the relationship between faith and reason (and between philosophy and theology), it is also a direct intervention into the very condition of philosophy today. It admonishes philosophy to regain its true path to the knowledge of truth. Anyone who believes (as I do) that there is a proper philosophic place for the concepts of knowledge, truth, objectivity, reality, and universality—even in light of the current critiques of these concepts—will welcome the spirit in which the pope's letter defends reason and the tasks of philosophy. And anyone who believes that there need not be an incompatibility between religious faith and the rigorous open pursuit of philosophy (as I do) will also welcome the spirit of the letter.
But if there is so much that is praiseworthy in this document, then what precisely is so troubling? The more closely we study the letter, the more it reveals deep inner tensions and conflicts. It speaks the language of "openness," "search," "discovery" and "journey." But at the same time, it is quite explicit and firm—even dogmatic (in the pejorative sense)—about what will and must be the end of this journey, about what "genuine" philosophic inquiry will and must discover. It gives with one hand what it takes away with the other. It certainly makes sense that the pope would be critical of those philosophic tendencies that seek to denigrate or undermine Christian faith, and furthermore, that he should indicate how philosophic inquiry might proceed in order best to support a Christian faith. But the document goes far beyond this. Although it disclaims supporting any single philosophic system or path, it makes some very substantial claims about reason, truth, and philosophy that are, at the very least, rationally contestable. It reads like a document that encourages genuine search, inquiry, and openness—as long as one ends up in "right place." The Church already knows what this journey will discover. Let me illustrate what I mean.
The letter states—without any qualification—that although times change, it is possible "to discern a core of philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole." This core includes the principles of "finality and causality, as well as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with the capacity to know God, truth and goodness"; there are also, the pope writes, "certain fundamental moral norms which are shared by all." The encyclical refers to these "truths" as an "implicit philosophy," shared in some measure by all, which can therefore "serve as a kind of reference-point for the different philosophical schools." Now if these claims are intended to be a statement of truths that are supposedly shared by all, then they are simply false. Philosophers (as well as others) have argued—and continue to argue—about the very meaning of finality, causality, and whether there are fundamental moral norms shared by all. If one is going to be true to the spirit of the autonomy of philosophy, then one must recognize that these alleged truths are still rationally debated by philosophers. It is disingenuous to speak about the openness of the philosophic search and yet claim that there is more substantial agreement than really exists.
Or consider another even more controversial claim. We are told that
people seek an absolute which might give to all their searching a meaning or an answer—something ultimate, which might serve as the ground of all things. In other words, they seek a final explanation, a supreme value, which refers to nothing beyond itself and which puts an end to all questioning. Hypotheses may fascinate, but they do not satisfy. Whether we admit it or not, there comes for everyone the moment when personal existence must be anchored to a truth recognized as final, a truth which confers a certitude no longer open to doubt.
If we analyze this passage carefully, the first point to note is the slide that takes place here. Suppose for the moment that one grants that people seek an absolute and that they are not satisfied with hypotheses: it certainly doesn't follow from this seeking that there exists "a truth recognized as final, a truth which contains a certitude no longer open to doubt." But even more important, a variety of philosophers have questioned the very idea of such an absolute and final truth. I am not referring to doctrines that celebrate extreme skepticism or "anything goes" relativism. I would argue that many of the best philosophies developed in the last one hundred years have attempted to move us beyond the blatant dichotomies: relativism or absolutism; subjectivism or objectivism. They have been essentially fallibilistic in spirit. Fallibilism is not relativism or skepticism; and it certainly is not (nor does to lead to) nihilism. It is rather the conviction that knowledge claims are always open to further rational criticism and revision. Fallibilism does not challenge the claim that we can know the truth, but rather the belief that we can know that we have attained the final truth with absolute certainty. Fallibilism can even be translated into religious terms as the principle that acknowledges our finitude and humility in the search for truth. This principle is by no means in compatible with a proper understanding of faith, although it would clearly reject the idea of a faith "which concerns a certitude no longer open to doubt."In this regard, I cannot help noting the letter's unfortunate and misleading characterization of pragmatism, described as "an attitude of mind which in making its choices, precludes theoretical considerations or judgments based on ethical principles." No serious student of the pragmatism of Charles S. Peirce, William James, or John Dewey could ever make such an irresponsible statement! For this is a caricature of pragmatism. Peirce, the founder of pragmatism, is one of the strongest modern de fenders of the idea of an objective reality that can be known by critical inquiry. He was also a committed fallibilist. He, as well as the other classical pragmatists, certainly did not preclude "theoretical considerations or judgments based on ethical principles."
What these examples illustrate is that although the letter stresses the search and the journey for knowledge, it contains a substantial and extremely controversial conception of what constitutes human knowledge. This can be summed up in a single word: "foundationalism." There is an absolute and universal truth that serves as the foundation for all knowledge whether it be the knowledge gained by natural human reason or the knowledge gained by faith. What is ignored in this document is that the very idea of such a foundation has been called into question by a variety of rational arguments. And once again I am not referring to fashionable forms of relativism or irrationalism. Rather, I am referring to those philosophers who have defended reason, universality, objectivity, and our capacity to know the truth, and yet have rejected any appeal to absolute epistemological, metaphysical, or ontological foundations.
Perhaps the rational critique of foundationalism in philosophy is misguided, but if it is, this must be shown by giving forceful reasons, and not by ex cathedra assertions. In an encyclical letter that presumably defends the autonomy of philosophy and reason, and insists that philosophy must proceed by its own principles, rules, and methods, it is disturbing to see how much of philosophy is ruled out as misguided or mistaken. If one questions the very idea of absolute foundations, if one questions whether we can ever achieve final certitude, if one has any doubts about metaphysical realism, if one questions whether there are moral norms that are shared by all, if one questions whether there are in deed "first universal principles of being," then one is presumably misguided and fails to understand the "true" tasks of philosophy. But it is difficult to reconcile such categorical assertions (presented authoritatively but without rational justification) with the insistence on open autonomous critical inquiry. It is difficult to reconcile the presumed spirit of openness with the judgment that would condemn as misguided the best philosophy of the past hundred years. The unspoken presupposition that is implicit throughout the letter is a dubious grand Either/Or. EITHER there is an absolute final truth that we can be known with absolute certitude, OR there is no escape from relativism, skepticism, and nihilism. But this presupposition itself is not subjected to rational critique.
Finally, I want to mention what is most confusing in this document. The word that is used with perhaps the greatest frequency here is truth. But it is used in a bewildering variety of ways: "ultimate Truth," "absolute truth," "universal truth," "the fullness of truth," "the different faces of human truth," "the truth attained by philosophy," "the truth of Revelation," "Jesus Christ as the truth," "the unity of truth," "different modes of truth," an "ulterior truth which would explain the meaning of life," "the truth of the person," are phrases repeated throughout the letter. Although it is clearly asserted that there are "different modes of truth," and that ultimately there is a harmony and unity of these truths, there is virtually no attempt to stand back and reflect upon the different meanings of "truth" and to show us precisely how they are all compatible. Nor is any attempt made to show us how we are to reconcile conflicting claims to truth. But this is the issue that must be confronted if one is to justify the claim that the truths of reason and faith form a harmonious unity.
Let me summarize what I take to be laudatory and troubling about this encyclical. At a time when philosophy and reason have been attacked and even ridiculed, it is encouraging to see the pope take such a strong stand defending the dignity and centrality of a life of reason and philosophy. But if one is genuinely to respect the integrity of the life of reason and philosophy as a search for truth and knowledge, then one cannot dictate from the outside what must be the results of this journey.
Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor of Philosophy on the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Re search. He is the author most recently of Freud and the Legacy of Moses (Cambridge Univ. Press).
