In this course, we will examine the viability of American pragmatism by measuring it by its own yardstick: its consequences. We will explore "applied pragmatism" (which is itself probably a pleonasm). We shall look into pragmatic philosophy of law (Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and the American Legal Realists), pragmatic political philosophy (John Dewey's theory of participatory democracy), and (briefly) pragmatic philosophy of education (Dewey's "progressive" theory of education). In assessing American pragmatism, we are evaluating America's distinctive contribution to twentieth-century philosophical thought. We will be looking at the classical era of American pragmatism, the first half of the twentieth century. Pragmatism--especially Holmes, Dewey, and William James--played an essential role in twentieth-century, American, intellectual history. What can we learn from it? How much does it really have to offer?