There had been signs that heralded a change of paradigm from post-structuralism to pragmatism, but the debate reached its peak during two congresses held in New York, within the milieu of Peter Eisenman and conceived, above all, by John Rajchman and Joan Ockman. The first encounter took place in the spring of 2000 at Columbia University. The second, organized by the MoMA under the title ‘Things in the Making’, was held later in the fall with the participation of the leading neopragmatists, Richard Rorty and Cornel West, along with Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas, old masters of New York’s architectural world. At the center of the debate is the rediscovery of the only philosophy that can be said to be genuinely American: pragmatism. This constitutes a rejection of the concept of criticism cultivated by the Frankfurt school, an approach actually characteristic of Foucault and many post-structuralists which naturally also has a bearing on New York’s architectural discourse... [+]