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The Drama of Possibility
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The Drama of Possibility: Experience as Philosophy of Culture

John J. McDermott and Douglas R. Anderson

Abstract

This book traces the trajectory of John J. McDermott's philosophical career through a selection of his essays. Many were originally occasional pieces and address specific issues in American thought and culture. Together they constitute a mosaic of McDermott's philosophy, showing its roots in an American conception of experience. Though he draws heavily on the thought of William James and the pragmatists, McDermott has his own unique perspective on philosophy and American life. Drawing inspiration from American history, from existentialist themes, ... More

Keywords: John J. McDermott, philosophy, American life, William James, pragmatism, American thought, American culture, existentialism

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2007 Print ISBN-13: 9780823226627
Published to Fordham Scholarship Online: March 2011 DOI:10.5422/fso/9780823226627.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

John J. McDermott, author

Douglas R. Anderson, editor
Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

The Drama of Possibility

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Introduction: Reading Mcdermott

John J. McDermott

Prelude: Remarks Upon Receiving the 2004 Presidential Teaching Award

John J. McDermott

Prescript

John J. McDermott

Part One An American Angle of Vision

Poem: Roots/Edges

John J. McDermott

Chapter One Threadbare Crape

John J. McDermott

Chapter Two An American Angle of vision, Part 1

John J. McDermott

Chapter Three An American Angle of Vision, Part 2

John J. McDermott

Chapter Four Spires of Influence

John J. McDermott

Chapter Five Josiah Royce's Philosophy of the Community

John J. McDermott

Chapter Six Possibility or Else!

John J. McDermott

Part Two Environing

Poem: The Professional Tin Cup

John J. McDermott

Chapter Seven A Relational World

John J. McDermott

Chapter Eight Nature Nostalgia and the City

John J. McDermott

Chapter Nine Space, Time, and Touch

John J. McDermott

Chapter Ten Glass Without Feet

John J. McDermott

Part Three Turning

Poem: Waiting

John J. McDermott

Chapter Eleven Why Bother

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twelve: Ill-at-Ease

John J. McDermott

Chapter Thirteen “Turning” Backward

John J. McDermott

Chapter Fourteen The Inevitability of Our Own Death

John J. McDermott

Chapter Fifteen Isolation as Starvation

John J. McDermott

Part Four Bequeathing

Poem: Deadlines

John J. McDermott

Chapter Sixteen Hast any Philosophy in Thee, Shepherd?

John J. McDermott

Chapter Seventeen The Cultural Immortality of Philosophy as Human Drama

John J. McDermott

Chapter Eighteen To Be Human is To Humanize

John J. McDermott

Chapter Nineteen Experience Grows by its Edges

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty The Aesthetic Drama of the Ordinary

John J. McDermott

Part Five Teaching

Poem: Lurking

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty-One The Gamble for Excellence

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty-Two Liberty and Order in the Educational Anthropology of Maria Montessori

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty-Three The Erosion of Face-to-Face Pedagogy

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty-Four Cultural Literacy

John J. McDermott

Chapter Twenty-Five Trumping Cynicism with Imagination

John J. McDermott

Finis

John J. McDermott

End Matter

Index