A Provocation: the Revival of Pragmatist Thought and South African Social Science

In the aftermath of the collapse of apartheid, critical intellectuals in South Africa have faced the prospect of redescribing the world in the absence of the political system which for decades had been the object of their critique. And this, in a context in which every doctrine of Modernism is on the defensive, if not on the floor. It is a daunting challenge, but it would require a powerful optimism to claim that it has been well met. Responses have too often been characterised by a move into the largely thought-free world of technocratic consultancy, or by abstracted theoretical faddishness or by crude fundamentalist reassertion of dogma. Talk-show hosts are probably more influential than academic social scientists in defining the issues for public debate. Is there a constructive way out of this impasse? To suggest that one has a ready remedy would be to place oneself in the line of ideological pyramid-selling-scheme salesmen of which we have already had too many. But it does seem to me that there is a style of thought that is currently enjoying an international revival, and may provide a base-line from which to begin thinking afresh. It is the philosophy of Pragmatism.