Date of Award
5-1-2017
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Stikkers, Kenneth
Abstract
This work explores the possibility of constructing a metaphor in order to facilitate communication. The problem was addressed was denoted by Stephen Rockefeller, a misunderstanding of John Dewey’s religious philosophy by fundamentalists. The point of departure is one which Dewey himself suggested in his eulogy for William James. This work explores the reasons and causes for the misunderstanding as well as methods of possible amelioration. The proposed means of overcoming the aforementioned misunderstanding is to construct a metaphor that will have the effect of communicating the position of the pragmatist to that of the fundamentalist. In order to do this a previously existing metaphor, that of the pragmatic hotel, will be reconstructed into the pragmatic church. The resulting metaphor connotes a position that is more acceptable to the fundamentalist thus facilitating communication.
Access
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