The logic and nature of modernity as a subject of historical, sociological, and philosophical study has been submitted to multiple fundamental controversies following the World Wars and decolonization, and these debates persist into our current moment of post–Cold War “globalization.” At stake in these debates is an epistemological dilemma with scientific and political resonance: the fact that in post-traditional societies there can be no single set of truths for understanding the world. There is often an unsettling religious edge to these controversies. In the previous chapter, we saw how the influential thinker Martin Heidegger interpreted the break from traditional forms of authority as a general decline, and so invested history with a Messianic hope celebrating a unity of will and condemning democratic secularism as an instance of nihilism.

Among the numerous theories that have attempted to either defend or dismantle the hegemonic discourses of Western modernity, the philosophy of American Pragmatism as articulated by Charles Pierce, William James, and, particularly, John Dewey has been considerably and unfortunately underestimated in the importance of its contribution to these debates occurring at the center of contemporary social transformations at an international level. Unlike Heidegger, Dewey was enthusiastic about the potential significance of declining traditional authority for cultures and social norms. Interpreting the situation as an opening for new and more creative ways of imagining social life, Dewey envisioned modernity as a road to more ethical and democratic forms of community. In this way he affirmed the democratic heritage of Enlightenment.