Pragmatism And Acceptive Change

The only thing that is constant in life is change. This does not mean that change is instantaneous. Change within a country is the slow and arduous task of the thinkers and influencers, as well as the citizens, of the society. Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon, The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menard, and Amusing the Million by John F. Kasson all share this common theme of gradual change by elaborating on the continuity of issues and beliefs and their slow modification; however, each details a specific change in American life.
Slavery by Another Name describes the harrowing details of convict leasing and other mistreatment that took place in the south after the emancipation of the slaves in 1863 until into the twentieth century. …show more content…
Pragmatism instructed for the practical implication of a situation to be accessed but also that the reason for a behavior is nothing but a justification instead of a motivator. Pragmatism is seen in the application of statistics. When statistics was still a new study, Peirce applied it in Robinson vs Mandell case. When Peirce applied statistics to determine the statistical improbability of a human behavior, the public became uncomfortable. The introduction of the use of statistics and probability resulted in the change of many people’s view of life and outcome. These philosophical influencers of the turn of the century shared a common theme in their beliefs, and that belief was tolerance. This underlying belief in tolerance accompanied the desire to create as much space in the social realm as possible while still maintaining a certain degree of restriction. This social space was to increase the number of possible outcomes and thus increase the probability of a good outcome for society. This was a change from previous beliefs that were focused on the restriction of the social realm to allow only certain curated …show more content…
The most glaringly obvious issue that was present within all the novels was white supremacy and social Darwinism. African Americans and all non-Anglo-Saxon races were believed to be inferior to the white man. Before Darwin published his research, some whites believed in polygenism because its principles further separated other races from theirs and could be used to justify the legality of slavery. Many of the great Anglo-Saxon minds during the decades surrounding the turn of the century seized Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and the concept of natural selection and clung on with very eager and reinforced minds. Darwin’s principle of natural selection was misconstrued to support the superiority of the white race. But these beliefs of superiority did not stem from these “scientific” theories of difference, they were always