Utopianism revisited with William James’s Pluralism. From a Critique of the Realised Utopia to an Experimental Utopia

Abstract

A paradox can be identified in contemporary Western societies. They represent themselves as grounded in strong realism and guided by reason, believing they inhabit what might be called a “realized utopia”. But what appears to be a disenchanted world is just a simulacrum. This kind of enchantment is immanent and devoid of any transcendence, thereby reducing utopia to the domain of the existing rather than projecting it into the horizon of the possible. This paper argues for a re-enchantment of the world through a renewal of utopianism, grounded in William James’s epistemology. Connecting utopian thought with James’s pragmatism can implement the indeterminacy and ambiguity inherent in utopianism in order to elaborate a way of thinking based on openness and pluralism.