Pragmatism and Anti- realism about the past

Recently John Dewey scholars such as David Hildebrand have made some ambitious claims about the capacity of Deweyan pragmatism to transcend the contemporary realism/anti- realism debate. I demonstrate that in one part of this debate, concerning the reality of the past, Deweyan pragmatism shares too many affi nities with anti- realism to justify Hildebrand's claims. These affi nities should not weaken the appeal of a pragmatist philosophy of the past (including the historical past). However, I argue that this philosophy needs to be supported by a stronger realism concerning the data from which-on the pragmatist and anti- realist understanding-the past is inferentially reconstructed.