Abstract

Pragmatism is suspicious of transcendence. Perhaps the term “transcendence” is itself suspect, in having a long history and being difficult to clarify. But for the sake of a fresh beginning, I would like to loosely and naïvely define transcendence as what is “beyond,” what in some way exceeds or is external to a significant limit. A fundamental form of transcendence is that of being beyond meaning, that is, existence which precedes or extends beyond the interpretation of questioning beings. Western thought has long privileged the eternal, and those who have rebelled against this, pragmatists among others, have brought to light the essential role of interpretation and what is obscured when that role is denied: the..