F.C.S. Schiller’s Pragmatist Philosophy of History

Abstract

This article posits a pragmatist philosophy of history as exemplified in the work of British Philosopher F.C.S. Schiller (1864–1937). Part of this argument for a pragmatist philosophy of history resides on pragmatism’s key notion of “experience” being presented here as both related to human forces that are operant in history, and the particularly important “temporal” nature within the term, making it also in part “historical.” The goal is to more generally broaden scholarship in pragmatism as both containing important elements of a unique and coherent philosophy of history, and to bring Schiller closer into the academic circle of the history of pragmatist thought.