“Pragmatism is a rejection of hierarchical structure itself, of the stabilizing (kingly) forces of structure, which would always stand safely outside structure—outside the game, but ruling the game. Pragmatism is a commitment to the openness of time and a chance to for change; pragmatism, then, is the expression of the radical democrat and the experimental method, or scientific spirit of democracy.”

Frank Lentricchia, Criticism and Social Change (University Of Chicago Press, 1985), 3.