PRAGMATIC DEMOCRACY: INQUIRY, OBJECTIVITY, AND EXPERIENCE DAVID L. HILDEBRAND Abstract: This essay argues that to understand Dewey’s vision of democracy as “epistemic” requires consideration of how experiential and communal aspects of inquiry together produce what is named here “pragmatic objectivity.” Such pragmatic objectivity provides an alternative to absolutism and self-interested relativism by appealing to certain norms of empirical experimentation. Pragmatic objectivity, it is then argued, can be justified by appeal to Dewey’s conception of primary experience. This justification, however, is not without its own complica- tions, which are highlighted with objections regarding “radical pluralism” in political life, and some logical problems that arise due to the supposedly “inef- fable” nature of primary experience. The essay concludes by admitting that while Dewey’s theory of democracy based on experience cannot answer all of the objections argumentatively, it nevertheless provides potent suggestions for how consensus building can proceed without such philosophical arguments. Keywords: democracy, John Dewey, experience, inquiry, objectivity, pluralism, pragmatism, Robert Talisse. Many Americans express pride that they live in a “democracy.” But pride is not enough to sustain a democracy, and there continue to be very good reasons to see the status of democracy as uncertain. As political philoso- pher Ronald Beiner describes our situation, “[W]e find ourselves barbar- ized by an empty public culture, intimidated by colossal bureaucracies, numbed into passivity by the absence of opportunities for meaningful deliberation, inflated by absurd habits of consumption, deflated by the Leviathans that surround us, and stripped of dignity by a way of living that far exceeds a human scale” (1992, 34). 1 Even if we bracket Beiner’s compelling concerns, it remains true that democracy is hard to maintain. As a form of political and cultural organization, democracy must be constantly reinvented, since it is of the very nature and essence of democ- racy to be something that cannot be handed on from one person or one 1 My thanks to Robert Talisse for pointing me toward this book. © 2011 The Author Metaphilosophy © 2011 Metaphilosophy LLC and Blackwell Publishing Ltd Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA METAPHILOSOPHY Vol. 42, No. 5, October 2011 0026-1068 © 2011 The Author Metaphilosophy © 2011 Metaphilosophy LLC and Blackwell Publishing Ltd