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The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, Volume I: Culture, Philosophy, and Religion

John J. McDermott (ed.)

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Josiah Royce's thought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently ... More

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Josiah Royce's thought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently available. They offer a detailed presentation of the viable relationship Royce forged between the local experience of community and the demands of a philosophical and scientific vision of the human situation. The selections reprinted here are basic to any understanding of Royce's thought and its pressing relevance to contemporary cultural, moral, and religious issues.Less

The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, Volume II: Logic, Loyalty, and Community

John J. McDermott (ed.)

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Josiah Royce's thought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently ... More

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Josiah Royce's thought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently available. They offer a detailed presentation of the viable relationship Royce forged between the local experience of community and the demands of a philosophical and scientific vision of the human situation. The selections reprinted here are basic to any understanding of Royce's thought and its pressing relevance to contemporary cultural, moral, and religious issues.Less

Charles Peirce's Theory of Scientific Method

Francis E. Reilly

This book is an attempt to understand a significant part of the complex thought of CharlesSanders Peirce, especially in those areas which interested him most: scientific method and related ... More

This book is an attempt to understand a significant part of the complex thought of CharlesSanders Peirce, especially in those areas which interested him most: scientific method and related philosophical questions. It is organized primarily from Peirce's own writings, taking chronological settings into account where appropriate, and pointing out the close connections of several major themes in Peirce's work which show the rich diversity of his thought and its systematic unity. Following an introductory sketch of Peirce the thinking and writer is a study of the spirit and phases of scientific inquiry, and a consideration of its relevance to certain outstanding philosophical views which Peirce held. This double approach is necessary because his views on scientific method are interlaced with a profound and elaborate philosophy of the cosmos. Peirce's thought is unusually close-knit, and his difficulty as a writer lies in his inability to achieve a partial focus without bringing into view numerous connections and relations with the whole picture of reality. This book attempts to understand Peirce as Peirce intended himself to be understood, and has presented what the author believes Peirce's philosophy of scientific method to be. The book singles out for praise Peirce's Greek insistence on the primacy of theoretical knowledge and his almost Teilhardian synthesis of evolutionary themes. Primarily philosophical, this volume analyzes Peirce's thought using a theory of knowledge and metaphysics rather than formal logic.Less

Charles S. Peirce: On Norms and Ideals

Vincent G. Potter

In recent years, Charles Sanders Peirce has emerged as one of America's major philosophical thinkers. His work has invited philosophical reflection about those basic issues that inevitably confront ... More

In recent years, Charles Sanders Peirce has emerged as one of America's major philosophical thinkers. His work has invited philosophical reflection about those basic issues that inevitably confront us as human beings, especially in an age of science. Peirce's concern for experience, for what is actually encountered, means that his philosophy forms a reflective commentary on actual life and on the world in which it is lived. This book argues that Peirce's doctrine of the normative sciences is essential to his pragmatism. No part of Peirce's philosophy is bolder than his attempt to establish esthetics, ethics, and logic as the three normative sciences and to argue for the priority of esthetics among the trio. The book shows that Pierce took seriously the trinity of normative sciences and demonstrates that these categories apply both to the conduct of man and to the workings of the cosmos. It combines sympathetic and informed exposition with straightforward criticism and deals with the gaps and inconsistencies in Peirce's thought. It shows that Peirce was above all a cosmological and ontological thinker, one who combined science both as a method and as result with a conception of reasonable actions to form a comprehensive theory of reality. Peirce's pragmatism, is not a glorification of action but rather a theory of the dynamic nature of things in which the “ideal” dimension of reality has genuine power for directing the cosmic order, including man, toward reasonable goals.Less

Conversion in American Philosophy: Exploring the Practice of Transformation

Roger A. Ward

This fresh, provocative account of the American philosophical tradition explores the work of key thinkers through an innovative and counterintuitive lens: religious conversion. From Jonathan Edwards ... More

This fresh, provocative account of the American philosophical tradition explores the work of key thinkers through an innovative and counterintuitive lens: religious conversion. From Jonathan Edwards to Cornel West, the book threads the history of American thought into an extended, multivalent encounter with the religious experience. Looking at John Dewey, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, Richard Rorty, Robert S. Corrington, and other thinkers, the book demonstrates that religious themes have deeply influenced the development of American philosophy. This innovative reading of the American philosophical tradition will be welcomed not only by philosophers, but also by historians and other students of America’s religious, intellectual, and cultural legacy.Less

Dewey’s Metaphysics: Form and Being in the Philosophy of John Dewey

Raymond D. Boisvert

This book presents an interpetation of John Dewey’s metahysics. Dewey spent seventy years of his life in philosophical activity. The book covers the three periods of Dewey’s career. The first is the ... More

This book presents an interpetation of John Dewey’s metahysics. Dewey spent seventy years of his life in philosophical activity. The book covers the three periods of Dewey’s career. The first is the idealistic phase, then the experimental phase, and finally the naturalistic phase. The book begins by discussing responses to two major problems in Deweyan scholarship and to a third issue of a more purely theoretical character. There are scholars who dismiss the Deweyan attempt at formulating a metaphysics as superficial, irrelevant, and contradictory. There are others who provide a caricature of Deweyan metaphysics as describing a natural world given over solely to flux, process, and change. There there is also a general need for contemporary philosophers to deal with the issues encapsulated in the term form. The book concludes that Dewey’s metahysics presented in this book has a direct bearing on a much-discussed topic in contemporary philosophical literature: the dispute between foundationalists and anti-foundationalists.Less

Doing Philosophy Personally: Thinking about Metaphysics, Theism, and Antiblack Racism

Dwayne A. Tunstall

This book contends that Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method is animated by two extraphilosophical commitments. Marcel’s first extraphilosophical commitment is to an ethico-religious insight where the ... More

This book contends that Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method is animated by two extraphilosophical commitments. Marcel’s first extraphilosophical commitment is to an ethico-religious insight where the highest ontological exigency for human persons is to participate in being. Marcel’s second extraphilosophical commitment is to battle the ever-present threat of dehumanization in late Western modernity. The importance of these two commitments to Marcel’s reflective method can be appreciated better if one views it as a teleological suspension of philosophy. Unfortunately, Marcel undermines his second extraphilosophical commitment by neglecting to examine what is perhaps the most prevalent threat of depersonalization in Western modernity, antiblack racism. Given Marcel’s professed commitment to battle against the forces of dehumanization in late Western modernity, any Marcellian reflective method that is faithful to Marcel’s commitment to combat dehumanization should account for how antiblack racism has affected modern human persons, especially Africana persons. Tunstall thinks Gordon’s existential phenomenology is a promising candidate for providing this sort of account.Less

The Drama of Possibility: Experience as Philosophy of Culture

John J. McDermott

Douglas R. Anderson (ed.)

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 ... More

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, and from personal experiences, he offers a dramatic consideration of our culture's failures and successes. McDermott crosses disciplinary boundaries, drawing on whatever helps to make sense of the issues with which he is dealing—issues rooted in medical practice, political events, pedagogical habits, and the world of the arts.Less

Faith in Life: John Dewey's Early Philosophy

Donald J. Morse

This book considers John Dewey's early philosophy on its own terms and aims to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. ... More

This book considers John Dewey's early philosophy on its own terms and aims to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. This fuller treatment reveals that the received view, which sees Dewey's early philosophy as unimportant in its own right, is deeply mistaken. In fact, Dewey's early philosophy amounts to an important new form of idealism. More specifically, Dewey's idealism contains a new logic of rupture, which allows us to achieve four things: a focus on discontinuity that challenges all naturalistic views, including Dewey's own later view; a space of critical resistance to events that is at the same time the source of ideals; a faith in the development of ideals that challenges pessimists like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; and a non-traditional reading of Hegel that invites comparison with cutting-edge Continental philosophers, such as Adorno, Derrida, and Zizek, and even goes beyond them in its systematic approach. In making these discoveries, the book forges a new link between American and European philosophy, showing how they share similar insights and concerns. It also provides an original assessment of Dewey's relationship to his teacher, George Sylvester Morris, and to other important thinkers of the day, giving us a fresh picture of John Dewey, the man and the philosopher, in the early years of his career. This book discusses a wide range of topics, from Dewey's early reflections on Kant and Hegel to the nature of beauty, courage, sympathy, hatred, love, and even death and despair.Less

Freedom and Limits

John Lachs

Patrick Shade (ed.)

This collection of articles by American philosopher, John Lachs, includes Lachs's discussions of philosophy of mind, medical ethics, his theories of mediation and choice-inclusive facts, and his ... More

This collection of articles by American philosopher, John Lachs, includes Lachs's discussions of philosophy of mind, medical ethics, his theories of mediation and choice-inclusive facts, and his recent espousal of anti-perfectionism and stoic pragmatism. Lachs acknowledges the complex tension that arises in celebrating human individuality, intelligence, and creativity while being mindful of the real conditions that curb our endeavors. Meaningful and enriching living are not thereby sacrificed but rather contextualized. As a result, Lachs celebrates moments of immediacy even as he recognizes the comforts and costs associated with material and moral advance. Each of the five parts of the volume highlights a dominant theme in Lachs's philosophy, and each is organized chronologically to map the development of specific arguments and ideas across the years.Less

The Human Eros: Eco-ontology and the Aesthetics of Existence

Thomas Alexander

This book explores themes in classical American philosophy, primarily the thought of John Dewey, but also that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Santayana, and Native American traditions. It argues that ... More

This book explores themes in classical American philosophy, primarily the thought of John Dewey, but also that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Santayana, and Native American traditions. It argues that human beings have an inherent need to experience meaning and value, a “Human Eros.” Our various cultures are symbolic environments or “spiritual ecologies” within which the Human Eros seeks to thrive. This is how we inhabit the earth. Encircling and sustaining our cultural existence is nature, yet Western philosophy has not provided adequate conceptual models for thinking ecologically. The book introduces the idea of “eco-ontology” to explore ways in which this might be done, beginning with the primacy of Nature over Being but also including the recognition of possibility and potentiality as inherent aspects of existence. It argues for the centrality of Dewey’s thought to an effective ecological philosophy. Both “pragmatism” and “naturalism,” it shows, need to be contextualized within an emergentist, relational, nonreductive view of nature and an aesthetic, imaginative, nonreductive view of intelligence.Less

John Dewey Between Pragmatism and Constructivism

Stefan Neubert and Kersten Reich

Larry A. Hickman (ed.)

Many contemporary constructivists are particularly attuned to Dewey's penetrating criticism of traditional epistemology, which offers rich alternatives for understanding processes of ... More

Many contemporary constructivists are particularly attuned to Dewey's penetrating criticism of traditional epistemology, which offers rich alternatives for understanding processes of learning and education, knowledge and truth, and experience and culture. This book, the result of cooperation between the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the Dewey Center at the University of Cologne, provides an excellent example of the international character of pragmatist studies against the backdrop of constructivist concerns. As a part of their exploration of the many points of contact between classical pragmatism and contemporary constructivism, its contributors turn their attention to theories of interaction and transaction, communication and culture, learning and education, community and democracy, theory and practice, and inquiry and methods. Part One is a basic survey of Dewey's pragmatism and its implications for contemporary constructivism. Part Two examines the implications of the connections between Deweyan pragmatism and contemporary constructivism. Part Three presents a lively exchange among the contributors, as they challenge one another and defend their positions and perspectives. As they seek common ground, they articulate concepts such as power, truth, relativism, inquiry, and democracy from pragmatist and interactive constructivist vantage points in ways that are designed to render the preceding essays even more accessible. The concluding discussion demonstrates both the enduring relevance of classical pragmatism and the challenge of its reconstruction from the perspective of the Cologne program of interactive constructivism.Less

Loyalty to Loyalty: Josiah Royce and the Genuine Moral Life

Mathew A. Foust

As a virtue, loyalty has an ambiguous place in our thinking about moral judgments. We lauded the loyalty of firefighters who risked their lives to save others on 9/11, while condemning the loyalty of ... More

As a virtue, loyalty has an ambiguous place in our thinking about moral judgments. We lauded the loyalty of firefighters who risked their lives to save others on 9/11, while condemning the loyalty of those who perpetrated the catastrophe. Responding to such uneasiness and confusion, Loyalty to Loyalty contributes to ongoing conversation about how we should respond to conflicts in loyalty in a pluralistic world. The lone philosopher to base an ethical theory on the virtue of loyalty is Josiah Royce. Loyalty to Loyalty engages Royce's moral theory, revealing how loyalty, rather than being just one virtue among others, is central to living a genuinely moral and meaningful life. Mathew A. Foust shows how the theory of loyalty he advances can be brought to bear on issues such as the partiality/impartiality debate in ethical theory, the role of loyalty in liberatory struggle, and the ethics of whistleblowing and disaster response.Less

The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead's Process and Reality

Elizabeth M. Kraus

This book styles itself as “a Sherpa guide to Process and Reality, whose function is to assist the serious reader in grasping the meaning of the text and to prevent falls into misinterpretation.” ... More

This book styles itself as “a Sherpa guide to Process and Reality, whose function is to assist the serious reader in grasping the meaning of the text and to prevent falls into misinterpretation.” Although originally published in 1925, Process and Reality has perhaps even more relevance to the contemporary scene in physics, biology, psychology, and the social sciences than it had in the mid-twenties. Hence, its internal difficulty, its quasi-inaccessibility, is all the more tragic, since, unlike most metaphysical endeavors, it is capable of interpreting and unifying theories in the above sciences in terms of an organic world view, instead of selecting one theory as the paradigm and reducing all others to it. Because Alfred North Whitehead is so crucial to modern philosophy, this book plays an important role in making Process and Reality accessible to a wider readership.Less

The Normative Thought of Charles S. Peirce

Cornelis de Waal and Krysztof Piotr Skowronski (eds)

This volume explores the three normative sciences that Peirce distinguished (aesthetics, ethics, and logic) and their relation to phenomenology and metaphysics. The chapters approach this topic from ... More

This volume explores the three normative sciences that Peirce distinguished (aesthetics, ethics, and logic) and their relation to phenomenology and metaphysics. The chapters approach this topic from a variety of angles, ranging from questions concerning the normativity of logic to an application of the Peirce's semiotics to John Coltrane's “A Love Supreme.” A recurrent question throughout is whether a moral theory can be grounded in the Peirce's work, despite his rather vehement denial that this can be done. Some chapters ask whether a dichotomy exists between theoretical and practical ethics. Other chapters show that Peirce's philosophy embraces meliorism, examine the role played by self-control, seek to ground communication theory in his speculative rhetoric, or examine the normative aspect of the notion of truth.Less

Peirce's Philosophical Perspectives

Vincent G. Potter

This book focuses primarily on Charles Sanders Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism. It is a collection of the author's essays on Peirce. The essays ... More

This book focuses primarily on Charles Sanders Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism. It is a collection of the author's essays on Peirce. The essays run counter to many selective readings of Peirce, including those encouraged by his friend and champion, William James. The influence of Bernard Lonergan and John E. Smith on the author is clear throughout. In the book, the author brought several distinctive assets to his scholarship. First, his appreciation and understanding of medieval philosophy enriched his discussion of John Duns Scotus's influence on Peirce's “scholastic realism.” Second, a background in the history of science and mathematics generated careful discussions of Peirce's analysis of probability in physics and of the continuum in mathematics. Finally, knowledge of theology yielded fruitful explorations of Peirce's argument of God's reality as vaguely like a man.Less

Pets, People, and Pragmatism

Erin McKenna

Pragmatism is used to explore human beings relationships with horses, dogs, and cats. This results in some surprising conclusions such as respectful relations may require humans to continue in some ... More

Pragmatism is used to explore human beings relationships with horses, dogs, and cats. This results in some surprising conclusions such as respectful relations may require humans to continue in some interactions that include training and work. While most animal rights advocates call for the abolition of all such use, a pragmatist needs to respect the history of these beings and find ways for them to express themselves. The biomedical context presents some interesting challenges. Most animal welfare and animal rights advocates say they want to end all use of animals in research, but few really want the end of all research. With some exceptions, most animal advocates are also people who live with petswho want the best care available for them. Caring for horses, dogs, and cats does not necessarily entail ending all research, but it does require us to look carefully at the kinds of use and the care they receive. We need to examine the relationships between humans and horse, dog, and cat beings.Less

Philosophy Americana: Making Philosophy at Home in American Culture

Douglas R. Anderson

This book begins with the assumption that philosophy—the Greek love of wisdom—is alive and well in American culture. At the same time, professional philosophy remains relatively invisible. This book ... More

This book begins with the assumption that philosophy—the Greek love of wisdom—is alive and well in American culture. At the same time, professional philosophy remains relatively invisible. This book traverses American life to find places in the wider culture where professional philosophy in the distinctively American tradition can strike up a conversation. How might American philosophers talk to us about our religious experience, or political engagement, or literature—or even popular music? This book's second aim is to find places where philosophy happens in nonprofessional guises—cultural phenomena such as country music, rock ‘n’ roll, and Beat literature. It not only enlarges the tradition of American philosophers such as John Dewey and William James by examining lesser-known figures such as Henry Bugbee and Thomas Davidson, but finds the theme and ideas of American philosophy in some unexpected places, such as the music of Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette, and Bruce Springsteen, and the writings of Jack Kerouac. The idea of “philosophy Americana” trades on the emergent genre of “music Americana,” rooted in traditional themes and styles yet engaging our present experiences. The music is “popular” but not thoroughly driven by economic considerations, and Anderson seeks out an analogous role for philosophical practice, where philosophy and popular culture are co-adventurers in the life of ideas.Less

The Politics of Survival: Peirce, Affectivity, and Social Criticism

Lara Trout

How can sincere, well-meaning people unintentionally perpetuate discrimination based on race, sex, sexuality, or other socio-political factors? To address this question, this book engages a neglected ... More

How can sincere, well-meaning people unintentionally perpetuate discrimination based on race, sex, sexuality, or other socio-political factors? To address this question, this book engages a neglected dimension of Charles S. Peirce's philosophy—human embodiment—in order to highlight the compatibility between Peirce's ideas and contemporary work in social criticism. This compatibility, which has been neglected in both Peircean and social criticism scholarship, emerges when the body is fore-grounded among the affective dimensions of Peirce's philosophy (including feeling, emotion, belief, doubt, instinct, and habit). The book explains unintentional discrimination by situating Peircean affectivity within a post-Darwinian context, using the work of contemporary neuroscientist Antonio Damaso to facilitate this contextual move. Since children are vulnerable, naïve, and dependent upon their caretakers for survival, they must trust their caretaker's testimony about reality. This dependency, coupled with societal norms that reinforce historically dominant perspectives (such as being heterosexual, male, middle-class, and/or white), fosters the internalization of discriminatory habits that function non-consciously in adulthood. This book brings Peirce and social criticism into conversation. On the one hand, Peircean cognition, epistemology, phenomenology, and metaphysics dovetail with social critical insights into the inter-relationships among body and mind, emotion and reason, self and society. Moreover, Peirce's epistemological ideal of an infinitely inclusive community of inquiry into knowledge and reality implies a repudiation of exclusionary prejudice. On the other hand, work in feminism and race theory illustrates how the application of Peirce's infinitely inclusive communal ideal can be undermined by non-conscious habits of exclusion internalized in childhood by members belonging to historically dominant groups, such as the economically privileged, heterosexuals, men, and whites.Less