Theory V Praxis

Theory v.
Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
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Theory v. Praxis
By JESSICA A. SEQUEIRA November 3, 2010
1
Asked once his thoughts on pragmatism, the late Columbia University professor Sidney
Morgenbesser is said to have replied: Its all very well in theory, but it doesnt work in practice.
Like a bad party guest, that last retort wouldnt leave the mental premises as I made my way
through Harvard history professor James T. Kloppenbergs new book Reading Obama: Dreams,
Hope, and the American Political Tradition. Released Sunday, Reading Obama is a highly
sympathetic account of Obamas intellectual influences, designed to establish him as no less
than the most penetrating political thinker elected to the presidency in the past century. But
the grab bag of thinkers and ideological positions presented make trying to pin an intellectual
label on Obamalike Kloppenbergs preferred phrase philosophical pragmatisma strained
enterprise. Obama may be a shrewd politician, with both a moral vision and knack for the
give-and-take required of Oval Office negotiations, but calling him a pragmatist doesnt make
understanding his decisions any easier. In fact, it may actually paper over inconsistenciesboth
in his own views and in those of pragmatism itself.
For starters, theres something deeply odd about the books emphasis on an intellectual
account of Obamas philosophy, excised from his actual careernot only because Obama is a
working politician long past kibbutzing about Peirce and Dewey in Langell Hall, but because
pragmatism itself rejects the line between theory and application. (A peculiar note in the
acknowledgements thanks a historian colleague working on his own biography of Obama,
although he does not share my interest in the importance of ideas in Obamas life.) That oddity
points to the knottier issue of Kloppenbergs distinction between philosophical and vulgar
pragmatism. It is a distinction which, as he admits in the books introduction, is not always
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Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
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clear in practice because philosophical pragmatists can and sometimes do recommend what
seems simply practical. But, he says, I will insist on the difference. Surely this begs the
questionfor it is precisely this element of decisionism in pragmatism, the seemingly arbitrary
moment that those in power insist on the difference, that is itself at stake.
Essential to the mild civic debate Kloppenberg advocates is that no citizens view be too strongly
argued. Indeed, what Kloppenberg seems to want is disagreementbut not too much. He is
against anything that threatens to disrupt what he variously calls civility and comity
repeatedly dismissing journalists sensation-driven coverage, which he claims distracts from
the careful scrutiny Obamas books deserve; and Nietzsches radical perspectivism, which in
each of the books multiple references becomes a synonym for valueless, post-Christian
nihilism, and ensnaring despair.
The fact that America is actually capable of sustaining these mild disagreements may be because
its values are relatively homogeneous. (Tocqueville noted this with some surprise in his travels
of America in 1831; modern surveys confirm.) But take Germany, where a major recent upswing
in anti-immigrant sentiment threatens to boil over precisely because as an issue it defies
consensus. According to a recent poll, one third of Germans want foreigners repatriated; 10
percent of Germans advocate not just a strong leader but a fhrer (a word used in the country
today only with reference to Hitler). This month Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that
multiculturalism in her country had utterly failed. The lefts response trickled forth a few
weeks later from liberal darling Jrgen Habermas. Three pages where one would do, discoursing
obliquely toward a solution that never quite arrives, the piece terminates abruptly in a threesentence conclusion: The United States has a president with a clear-headed political vision,
even if he is embattled and now meets with mixed feelings. What is needed in Europe is a
revitalized political class that overcomes its own defeatism with a bit more perspective,
resoluteness and cooperative spirit. Democracy depends on the belief of the people that there is
some scope left for collectively shaping a challenging future.
The problem with the idea of democracy as a testing ground for collectively shaping ideas,
however, is that at times values might conflict irreconcilablyor arrive at the wrong
conclusions. Consensus is itself an empty category; the tragedy of democracy is that it is not
always just. If most Germans agreed that Turks and Arabs should be ousted from their country
immediately, this would not make it more acceptable. As Obama himself makes no pretense of
hiding (writing in The Audacity of Hope that I am robbed even of the certainty of
uncertaintyfor sometimes absolute truths may well be absolute) there are certain times when
a leaders rigidly held beliefs may override citizens. Kloppenberg himself cites the heroic
convictions of Lincolns stance against slavery as an example. But if the philosophy of
pragmatism really does require an option to override consensus, its coherence as a doctrine
must be questioned.
Perhaps the most troubling line in Kloppenbergs book comes at the end of the first chapter,
when he starkly states: America in the early twenty-first century has enemies. He means
enemies abroad; that this is taken for granted, in such unequivocal language, sends warning
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signals. Indeed, the civic tolerance he has Obama advocating seems to break down when it
comes to foreign relations. In one of the few critical notes in the book, he writes that: The
strident tone of his inaugural address and startling speed and extent of his expansion of the
American militarys role in Afghanistan suggest [that] in the sphere of international relations,
Obama may prove no more successful in using philosophical pragmatism to harness his
ambitions than Woodrow Wilson.
So were left with this coy evasion: Is he, or isnt he? Either Obama is not always a philosophical
pragmatist, or philosophical pragmatism might not actually be effectiveneither of which
Kloppenberg wishes to concede. (The link between Obamas ambitions and his pragmatism
remains tantalizingly undeveloped.) Times are hard, ideas are softaverse to absolutes,
philosophical pragmatism may come to mean simply whatever it means when implemented.
Whats certain is that as considered here it is too broad, and leaves too many questions
unanswered, to serve as a satisfactory political theory. After all, if one werent already on board
with Obamas actions in office thus far, how would one really feel about a pragmatist in the
White House?
Jessica A. Sequeira 11, a former Crimson associate editorial editor, is a social studies
concentrator in Winthrop House.
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1 Comment
PF
This is a great op-ed piece and reflection on Kloppenberg's somewhat befuddling, if

well-intentioned book. Bravo, Jessica.
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Theory v.

Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

CAMBRIDGE, MA WEATHER: 53F

Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Record $400 Million Gift Renames

Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

2. The Liberal Diversity Dilemma

Ex-Harvard Student Brittany Smith

In Flux: Non-Ladder Life at

Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

This is a great op-ed piece and reflection on Kloppenberg's somewhat befuddling, if

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

Unfinished Process | Opinion |

The Other Side of Mt. Auburn Street |

Returning to High Returns | News |

The Liberal Diversity Dilemma | Opinion |

Theory v. Praxis | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Copyright 2015 The Harvard Crimson, Inc.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

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