Lake-ian pragmatism and the path to engaged practice

ABSTRACT

Bob Lake’s writing traces a route from positivism to pragmatism, from market dominance to political possibility, from coercion to persuasion, and from consolatory escapism to engaged practice. His work inspires us to embark on an engaged practice that not only questions the worth of “spectator knowledge” but also reinstitutes the purpose of our everyday participation as members of the academic community. Lake is an anti-essentialist who finds the meaning of knowledge production in interhuman communication and collective engendering of communal values. This has led his work to constantly question the predetermined a priori worldviews, epistemologies, and ideological umbrellas that often occlude the actual realities that real social actors continue to reshape and reinvent. His incessant questioning is not born out of contrarian vanity. Rather, it encourages us to develop and practice habits of creative democracy in our everyday actions of love, care, and solidarity.

KEYWORDS:

• Pragmatism
• democracy
• engaged practice
• pluralism
• interhuman solidarity

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the comments and feedbacks provided by Kathe Newman, James DeFilippis, Bob Lake, Andy Jonas, and an anonymous reviewer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).