Pragmatism and its various uses. A journey through Peirce, Foucault, and Deleuze

Abstract

This article examines the conceptual affinities between American Pragmatism and European post-structuralist thought through a comparative reading of Charles S. Peirce, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. It argues that Peirce’s “ultra-Copernican revolution” redefines philosophical inquiry by shifting attention from the essence of concepts to their practical effects. Meaning is thus understood in terms of consequences, as a possible difference in practice. From this perspective, Deleuze’s question what can a body do? and Foucault’s analyses of power and the practices of the self are interpreted pragmatically: truth and meaning are not fixed entities but effects produced within habits, understood as socially embedded dispositions to act. Foucault’s ethopoietics becomes a practice of deliberate self-formation oriented toward effective conduct. The article concludes by exploring the political dimension of Peirce’s realism and his doctrine of “Evolutionary Love,” emphasizing continuity and communal aspiration, and aligning pragmatism with a geophilosophy grounded in hope, trust, and democratic community.