This collection provides a thorough grounding in the philosophy of American pragmatism by examining the views of four principal thinkers—Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead—on issues of central and enduring importance to life in human society.
Pragmatism emerged as a characteristically American response to an inheritance of British empiricism.
Presenting a radical reconception of the nature of experience, pragmatism represents a belief that ideas are not merely to be contemplated but must be put into action, tested and refined through experience. At the same time, the American pragmatists argued for an emphasis on human community that would offset the deep-seated American bias in favor of individualism. Far from being a relic of the past, pragmatism offers a dynamic and substantive approach to questions of human conduct, social values, scientific inquiry, religious belief, and aesthetic experience that lie at the center of contemporary life. This volume is an invaluable introduction to a school of thought that remains vital, instructive, and provocative.
 

Albert Rothenberg, a psychiatrist, and Carl R. Hausman, a philosopher, have prepared a truly comprehensive interdisciplinary book of readings on creativity. This group of selections from the works of writers in psychiatry, philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis, and education brings together, for the first time, major theoretical works, outstanding empirical findings, and discussions of the definition and nature of creativity.
The organization of The Creativity Question is unique: it illustrates the various approaches and basic assumptions underlying studies of creativity throughout the course of history up to the present time. The main body of selections appears under the categories of descriptions, attempts at explanation, and alternate approaches. As specific orientations to creativity can be traced to particular initiating thinkers and investigators, there is a special chapter on seminal accounts containing selections from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Galton, and Freud. Another chapter includes recent illustrations of special types of exploratory trends: creativity of women, brain research, synectics, extrasensory perception, behaviorism, and creativity computer programming. This organization highlights the tension between strictly scientific accounts and alternative approaches offering new ways of understanding. The editors have provided for the books as a whole and for each chapter explanation and discussion of the basic issues raised by the various approaches to creativity.