American Philosophy

For the United States of America, the Declaration of Independence marked the most significant public communication of the Nation’s moral political philosophy. In fact, this one document alone would set the ideological tone to shape the philosophies of American political theorists for centuries to come. Along with other ideological political documents, the Declaration informed American values on concepts of freedom, justice, and equality. Despite its conceptual genius however, the Declaration’s stated moral principles would be marred by the Nation’s cruel and inhumane treatment of its African Americans citizens. Consequently, America’s political ideals related to concepts of equality and truth are often met with skepticism when perceived through the lens of the lived experiences of many African Americans.

Political morality can be defined in terms of traditional philosophy and analyzed based on its application in individual and communal contexts. American moral thought is advanced around the globe as the standard of a model communal political morality. Even so, imposing its documented principles of morality has not consistently guided America’s treatment of its own African Americans citizens. Ultimately, this chapter explores the philosophical development of American cultural perspectives on political morality as demonstrated through early American writings, and examines the degree to which moral behavior involving practices of truth-telling, apology and forgiveness might legitimately be applied to governments and then, imposed on citizens.

J. Caleb Clanton's excellent new book is a must read for scholars studying the "classical" American philosophical tradition and for philosophers of religion more generally. In each of the six main chapters, Clanton reconstructs and assesses an argument in philosophy of religion made by one (or sometimes two) philosophers that belong to the classic American tradition. Clanton's approach is analytical and precise but not overly technical. His careful reconstructions of each argument constitute an invaluable scholarly contribution, and his insightful criticisms of each argument warrant the close attention of his philosophical peers. Clearly, Clanton's book is the fruit of long hours spent "thinking with" the classic American philosophers (2). His book stands as a testament to both the richness of that tradition and the continuing vitality and interest of the questions explored by philosophers of religion.

Resumo: Este artigo é uma breve apresentação de "O desenvolvimento do pragmatismo americano", de John Dewey, cuja tradução é publicada neste presente número de COGNITIO-ESTUDOS. Trata-se de mostrar como Dewey interpreta a história do pragmatismo como corrente filosófica nascida nos EUA, com as idéias de Peirce sobre o método científico e a significação conceitual, passando pela reinterpretação das idéias de Peirce feita por James, que transformou o pragmatismo numa teoria da ação e da verdade. Dewey afirma se filiar a essa corrente numa linha de continuidade, embora não sem algumas diferenças, ao defender que seu instrumentalismo é uma conseqüência da ampliação do pragmatismo operada por James. Palavras-chave: John Dewey. Charles S. Peirce. William James. Pragmatismo. Crença. Instrumentalismo.

Obecně panuje názor, že (profesionální) filosofové se existencí ani povahou Boha už vlastně nezabývají. Zkušenost o rozšířenosti tohoto názoru jsem si odnesl ze svých rozmluv nejen s odborníky na zjevenou teologii, ale i s mnohými kolegy filosofy. 1 Jakkoli je však asi trefný pro kontinentální Evropu, nezachycuje stav filosofické teologie produkované v posledních padesáti letech v USA a Velké Británii. V tomto článku proto čtenáře postupně zpravím o rozmachu angloamerické filosofie náboženství od 60. let 20. století (1), o rozkvětu teismu v rámci tohoto rozmachu (2) a o klíčových dílech Alvina Plantingy (nar. 1932), jenž je nejvlivnější postavou řečeného rozkvětu (3). Stanovím většinové přístupy současné teistické filosofické teologie pěstované v USA a Velké Británii (4) a poskytnu souhrnný přehled jejích témat (5). Výsledkem by měla být základní, ale co možná nejvěrnější představa o genezi, obsahu a životaschopnosti veliké části současné filosofické teologie vůbec.

This paper details how, besides his work on theoretical physics, Philipp Frank continued to remain interested in the philosophical questions of physics throughout his entire career. While this interest surfaced in different forms in different periods, Frank's late approach (developed mainly in the United States) constituted a sophisticated and complex inquiry into what he called the "humanistic background of science". Frank argued that we need to understand the physical (or scientific) endeavor as a whole. In this project, as it turned out, metaphysics could play a crucial role. Frank's American activities thus involved two core issues: (1) interpreting metaphysics in a way that would make it a meaningful enterprise for empiricists; and (2) investigating to what extent metaphysics, in this interpretation, can contribute to a better understanding of the natural sciences. Using the results of the latter, Frank tried to bridge the gap between the natural and social sciences.

The catalyst for much of classical pragmatist political thought was the great waves of migration to the United States in the early twentieth century. José-Antonio Orosco examines the work of several pragmatist social thinkers, including John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Josiah Royce, and Jane Addams, regarding the challenges large-scale immigration brings to American democracy. Orosco argues that the ideas of the classical pragmatists can help us understand the ways in which immigrants might strengthen the cultural foundations of the United States in order to achieve a more deliberative and participatory democracy. Like earlier pragmatists, Orosco begins with a critique of the melting pot in favor of finding new ways to imagine the civic role of our immigrant population. He concludes that by applying the insights of American pragmatism, we can find guidance through controversial contemporary issues such as undocumented immigration, multicultural education, and racialized conceptions of citizenship.

What are the hopes and ideals for democracy in a time of division and partisanship? This article explores John Dewey's famous address, "Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us" as a repository of materials for theorizing a new approach to democracy in a polarized state. Focusing on the quality and variety of connections--actual, mediated, or possible--connective democracy denotes a new approach to thinking about what we want out of democracy, and what has gone wrong in many of today's fractured states.


<https://mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/216-spring-2021-vol-32-no-2/3999348-connective-democracy-the-task-before-us>

“With selections by marginalized thinkers, this Reader rejects the myth that American philosophy is fundamentally male, white, and limited to the United States. It offers a window to the contexts, cultures, and conflicts that shaped Native American, African American, Latin American, and Asian American philosophies, and provides fresh insight into perennial problems in ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology by expanding the philosophical canon. Required reading.”

Derrick Darby, Henry Rutgers Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, USA



“The year is 2021 and what you have here is perhaps the first and only anthology of ‘American’ philosophy.”

Robert Eli Sanchez, Jr. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Occidental College, USA



“This exciting collection does some very important philosophical work. Díaz and Foust provide us with the tools to construct a much more honest philosophical canon, one with a hemispheric awareness of the importance of multicultural perspectives. By showing us the wide range of North and Latin American voices, we are able to find new ways of thinking for a more humane future.”

José-Antonio Orosco, Professor of Philosophy, Oregon State University, USA

Howard Callaway here has given us a thoroughly annotated new reading of James’s 1909 pragmatic classic, then one last sword-thrust at the dying Absolute of metaphysical idealism, now the enduring final note of America's most distinctively stylish and original philosophical voice. (Some Problems of Philosophy was still to come, posthumously. James did not consider it finished at his death.)

In this paper, I argue that justice is best understood as an evolving regulative ideal. This framework avoids cynicism and apathy on the one hand as well as brash extremism on the other. I begin by highlighting the elusive quality of justice as an ideal always on the horizon, yet which is nevertheless meaningful. Next, I explain the ways in which it makes more sense to see justice as evolving, rather than as fixed. Finally, I demonstrate the value of Charles Sanders Peirce’s concept of a regulative ideal for framing a pragmatist outlook on justice. Peirce helps us at the same time to appreciate ideals yet to let go of outmoded understandings of their metaphysical status. Ideals are thus tools for regulating behavior. Each of these
qualifications demonstrates that justice is best conceived of as an evolving regulative ideal.

How exactly did the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, influence Bhimrao Ambedkar? This study examines possible interpersonal connections that they may have shared, as well as lines of textual influence from Russell to Ambedkar. While we find it doubtful that Russell and Ambedkar ever met or corresponded, we do find evidence of Ambedkar's pragmatism being shaped by Russell's writings.

Prima versione italiana dei saggi: "Carattere", "Lo studioso", "Educazione", "La sovranità dell'etica". Con un saggio introduttivo del curatore dedicato a Leon Augusto Perussia, primo divulgatore italiano dei saggi di Emerson, seguito dalla prefazione di Perussia alla sua originaria raccolta "Il carattere e la vita umana" (1886).

I t is hard to find a basis for hope in the world today. Gains in the struggle for women's historic equality are eroded when politicians' demeaning stances toward women and dismissal of their testimony about sexual assault become commonplace and accepted. 1 Progress in civil rights is met with explosive growth in privatized prisons disproportionately populated by minority citizens, police brutality commonly resulting in no indictments of officers, and even angry white mobs bearing torches in defense of Confederate monuments. 2 The United States elected a champion of anti-intellectualism and unfettered capitalism who raises concerns of fascism. 3 And his challengers are charged with being in the pockets of finance capitalism and having rigged primary elections. 4 The potential for war is heightened at a time when the most powerful politician in the world speaks loosely about the use of nuclear weapons. 5 The national organization of public education is also under threat, and the head of the U.S. Department of Education is rolling back regulations intended to protect and address the interests of students with educational-accessibility needs and vulnerabilities. 6 Nearly a third of American voters polled genuinely believe today in the potential for another civil war, all while favoring protectionist economic policies that are hurting the very people they were intended to help. 7 And Americans have elected a president who has fought to hide the findings and release of a national climate assessment in which more than a dozen federal agencies warn of "substantial damages" and climate effects that are "intensifying across the country." 8 Americans today desperately need guidance in intellectual and moral leadership. As I hope that this book will make clear, John Dewey was an exemplary public philosopher who sought to provide Americans and lovers of democracy Introduction Democratic Faith and Education in Unstable Times dewe19894_1st_pp.indb 1 14/08/20 3:57 PM dewe19894_1st_pp.indb 2 14/08/20 3:57 PM Democratic Faith and Education in Unstable Times m 3-1-0-+1 difficult today to imagine that the general public might know American philosophers by name: Highly educated circles often know Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, or Michael Sandel. And some philosophers have local followings or are rising stars, but Dewey became well known all while being generally a mildmannered and humble professor of philosophy, one who nevertheless often addressed the public in writings and speeches. Dewey's soft-spoken good character was familiar, but the relation between his philosophical ideas and his consequent motivation to be publicly engaged as a writer and speaker has gone underappreciated, including by prominent, self-proclaimed Deweyans like Richard Rorty. 11 While general audiences will benefit from a return to Dewey's wisdom and example, scholars in the academy stand to learn a great deal, including about a possible path forward for a new movement of engaged public scholarship that is still only burgeoning, even now. It would be especially valuable if this volume were to inspire administrators and leaders in higher education to make meaningful in reality, practice, and policy their generally empty statements and vague allusions to valuing publicly engaged scholarship. 12 John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, on October 20, 1859, to Archibald and Lucina Dewey. He studied at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1879, and then taught for three years, first at the high school level in Oil City, Pennsylvania, until 1881, and then at the elementary level in Charlotte, Vermont, until 1882. His time in Oil City left some lasting impressions on him, given that it was an industrial-age town at its prime. In addition, he had a vague but powerful "mystic experience," a "supremely blissful feeling" that led him to abandon his earlier worries about the need for adequate prayer to a supernatural being and to focus on experience and his relation to other people. 13 Dewey attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1884. As a student, he participated in and gave presentations before the Metaphysical Club, the subject of Louis Menand's 2002 Pulitzer prize-winning book on American philosophers. 14 Upon earning his doctorate, he accepted a position as instructor at the University of Michigan, where two years later he was appointed assistant professor of philosophy in 1886. That year, he married Harriet Alice Chipman, and the next year he published his Psychology, which gained little academic attention. In 1888, he accepted an offer from the University of Minnesota, only to be courted back to the University of Michigan in 1889 to become chair and professor of philosophy. The same year, he published "The Value of Historical Christianity," included in this volume. In that essay, he noted the moral benefits of certain Christian principles and teachings, which he saw as residing in human beings' concerns for one another, as well as the joining of the divine in humanity, which Jesus embodied. In this essay, we find an early expression of Dewey's

There has been little scholarly attention to the tension within Dewey's comments on the ancients. On the one hand, Dewey's polemics condemn the lasting influence of Greek philosophers as deleterious. He charges the Greeks with originating a quest ("the quest for certainty") that has led Western philosophy into such dualisms as reason and emotion, mind and nature, individual and community, and theory and practice. On the other hand, Dewey often has many sympathetic things to say about the Greeks. Taking account of the limited scholarship done on this topic, this essay articulates the dimensions of the tension and tries to put it into a Deweyan perspective.

Through fifteen interrelated essays, Daniel Campos’ Loving Immigrants in America reflects upon his experiences as a Latin American immigrant to the United States and develops an experiential philosophy of personal interaction. Building upon previous work,  Campos’ implicit conceptual framework comes from Charles S. Peirce’s dual philosophical accounts of the evolution of personality and evolutionary love. But the flesh and blood of the book are Campos’ own personal experiences as an immigrant who has labored for more than twenty years to make himself at home in the United States, aka la Yunai, by growing to love an impressively broad range of places and people across the country. Campos begins in rural Arkansas (where he arrived as an eighteen-year-old from Costa Rica to study at a small religious liberal arts college), travels extensively across the Deep South (in a series of road trips described in Chapters 3-6), completes an MA in Statistics and later a PhD in Philosophy at Penn State, and eventually settles to teach at Brooklyn College where he is surrounded by immigrants from all over the world. The book’s cast of characters and Campos’ interactions with them are so extensive as to defy generalization, but careful readers are likely to walk away convinced of Campos’ claim that “anyone who is receptive and attentive to the commonality of human experience can empathize with immigrants” (2).

Emerson's philosophy seems to be clouded by the weak attention that scholars, with a few notable exceptions, have devoted to his work. This is mainly evident in the Italian editions, which drastically debase the key concept of self-reliance employing an ineffective periphrasis: "fiducia in sé stessi". Crossing Emerson's multifaceted and unsystematic work, with particular regard to the first and second series of the Essays [1841-44], this article attempts a different translation that can reproduce the primary philosophical and political meaning of self-reliance. This new perspective allows the true subject of Emersonian thought, quite different from the atomized individual of the current U.S. political model, to emerge from his work; it is the self-reliant man – namely, a subject who, by virtue of his self-reliance, designs a form of socialization that is unprecedented and never experienced.

Middle-class progressives in the early 20th Century wanted to transform a corrupt and chaotic industrial America into an "authentic" democracy. But they were led astray by their privilege. Focused on enhancing the voices of individuals, generations of progressives remained blind to the rich culture of "democratic solidarity" infusing labor unions and organizing in poor communities. This book traces the problematic evolution of progressive democracy in America, focusing on schools as a key site of progressive practice. At the same time, it examines alternative strategies for developing more empowering approaches to democratic education and collective action.

The best book for those perplexed by the philosophical and ethical conundrums of genetics in the 21st century. (CHOICE)

McGee develops a very powerful line of reasoning about genetic enhancement. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

He combines a rich body of clinical material with informed pragmatic critique. (Mary Briody Mahowald, University of Chicago)

A pioneering, landmark work in pragmatic bioethics. (John J. Stuhr, Head of the Department of Philosophy, Penn State University)

This captivating book offers balanced new insights for individual decisions and for public policy. (John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University)

A welcome alternative to work that force fits the issues either to scholarly abstractions or to myths of popular culture. (Caroline Whitbeck, Ethics Center for Engineering & Science, MIT)

A provocative account of this emerging, cutting-edge issue that will greatly profit future commentators and policymakers. (John Robertson, School of Law, University of Texas)

A useful road map as we enter the complex territory of genetic medicine in the 21st century. (James M. Wilson, director, Institute for Human Gene Therapy, University of Pennsylvania)

A remarkably well-informed and sensitive exploration of the opportunities and challenges presented by the new science of genetics. (Jonathan D. Moreno, State University of New York, Brooklyn)

Extremely readable and provocative . . . succeeds at something that few scholars in Bioethics have even attempted: to speak in ordinary language and in a conversational voice about the nest of subtle issues that entangle new advances in human genetics. (Eric Juengst, Ph.D. Center for Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine)

McGee is one of the most energetic and inquisitive writers in the emerging 'next generation' of bioethicists . . . His work is interesting, important, and has the kind of self-reflective courage we need to face these issues squarely. (Margaret P. Battin, University of Utah)

McGee's application of the pragmatic method to issues in bioethics is both timely and effective. McGee's excellent final chapters will give students of all levels a perspective that cannot be found in other books of the kind. (Teaching Philosophy)

McGee's book breathes all the virtues of a pioneering work. it puts the issue of human genetic engineering in a fresh perspective, draws the attention to many valuable points, and raises a number of important questions. (Cornelis de Waal, Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy Newsletter Of The Society For The Advancement Of American)

McGee's well-written and intriguing new book adds little to the content . . . .he does offer a unique and much needed practical approach to the critical analysis of the relevant issues. (Timothy Caulfield, Universtiy of Alberta Phil Review, Vol. Xvii N0.. 4-6 Aug.-Dec. 97)

McGee's book is an excellent introduction to the issues and he provides especially good treatments of the nature/nurture debate and the relationship between genetics and allocation decisions. Many will find his views provocative. His work is breezy and fun to read. (L.M.P. Ethics, Jan. 1998)

So where do ordinary folk, faced with a life-or-death decision, get some useful information? This book might be a good starting ground. (Beverly Kelley, California Lutheran University Sunday, June 29, 1997)

The philosophical tradition of American pragmatism has had a fresh life in recent years. In McGee's hands it is richer, more suggestive . . . Not everyone will find The Perfect Baby acceptable, but McGee will give the opponents reason to pause. Weneed that kind of initiative, and McGee's book will provoke some useful, much needed debate. (Daniel Callahan, The Hastings Center)

Finally— a good book about genetics— that makes these fascinating issues understandable to the families who need to know. (N. P. R.'S Voices In The Family)

. . . useful to just about everyone who must grapple with the new genetics. (The Washington Times)

The book is appropriately directed to a diverse audience and makes refreshing use of plain language to address relevant issues present in the choices we must now make in everyday life. (Bruce C. Trafnell, Genetic Therapy, Inc. Dept. of Virology Nature Medicine, Vol. 3 No. 6)

This article offers an overview on current trends and future research possibilities within the philosophy of
whiteness. It examines the sub-field of the philosophy of whiteness within the context of the larger field
of the philosophy of race in order to assess the viability and relevance of this field of study. Some of the
topics on whiteness examined in the article include the problems of white ignorance and privilege, the
invisibility of white supremacist racism to white people, and how all these problems can be understood
either as examples of epistemologies of ignorance or as unexamined habits in the sense used by pragmatist
philosophy. The article argues that the current state of this field calls for a greater emphasis on public intellectualism
on whiteness that would incorporate many ideas that are widely accepted by critical race
scholars into the under-informed public discourse on race and whiteness. It also argues that the increasing
prevalence of negative liberty movements in the United States should be examined in light of established
research on the philosophy of whiteness.

This is an essay in philosophical anthropology that explores two themes: 1) an understanding of human being as relationally constituted, and 2) the constitutive role of absence in human being. The authors present and explore the general ideas of the American philosopher Justus Buchler and their intersection with those of Nicholas Rescher, Jacques Lacan, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen. The authors contend that a relational conception of human being is both plausible and desirable, and that absence or lack is a distinctive constitutive feature of human being.

Originally published in 1927, John Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems is a landmark work in pragmatist political philosophy. Today many commentators appreciate it as the mature expression of the American pragmatist’s democratic theory (though at least two later essays are perhaps more representative). It is also considered a classic text for students of twentieth-century American political thought. The book was originally a series of lectures given at Kenyon College in 1926. Many of its central ideas grew out of debate Dewey had with a fellow public intellectual, Walter Lippmann. Besides its inclusion in the collected works (1996, edited by Larry Hickman), the only other edition to be released was by Swallow Press in 1954, containing Dewey’s half-page foreword (1927) and his twelve-page afterword (1946).  With the arrival of Penn State Press’ new edition, introduced and edited by Melvin L. Rogers, The Public and Its Problems receives a monumental facelift. It includes a chronology of Dewey’s life events, an editorial note, and Rogers’ introduction to the work, subtitled ‘Revisiting the Public and Its Problems’.

I argue that Theodor W. Adorno is best understood as a moral perfectionist thinker in the stripe of Stanley Cavell. This is significant because Adorno’s moral philosophy has not received serious interest from moral philosophers, and much of this has to do with difficulties in situating his thought. I argue that once Adorno is situated in this way, then, like Cavell, he offers an interesting moral perspective that will be of value to a variety of moral theorists. My argument proceeds in two broad steps: first, I show that Cavell and Adorno share a distinct epistemological orientation, one that centers around the impossibility of knowledge in certain situations, and trades on a Kantian and post-Kantian picture. Second, I show that their moral perfectionism fundamentally rests on such epistemology.

Can science tell us what’s objectively true? Or is it merely a clever way to cure doubt – to give us something to believe in, whether it’s true or not? In this essay, I look at the pragmatist account of science expounded by Charles Sanders Peirce in his 1877 essay, ‘The Fixation of Belief’. Against Peirce, I argue that science does not come naturally to our species, nor does the doubting open-mindedness upon which its practice relies. To the extent that science is successful in ‘curing’ doubt, it’s because it tracks the real state of the world; and I argue that Peirce himself – his pragmatist narrative notwithstanding – is implicitly committed to this view as well.

Resumen Este artículo analiza la idea de etnocentrismo propuesta por Richard Rorty. Sostiene que este etnocentrismo forma parte de la condición humana que debemos asumir así como asumimos la finitud de la vida. El etnocentrismo sería una condición a reconocer y asumir en el diálogo intercultural, una invitación al respecto por la diferencia cultural y la tarea por gestionarlo para convertirlo en un etnocentrismo crítico de sí mismo y permeable a las influencias culturales que pueden generar relaciones más solidarias. Abstract This article analyzes Richard Rorty's idea of ethnocentrism. Rortty argues that this is part of the human condition that we must take and assume as part of human life. Ethnocentrism would be a condition to recognize and take intercultural dialogue, an invitation to respect cultural difference and the task of managing it in order to turn it into a critical self-ethnocentrism and make it transferable to cultural influences that can generate relations of more solidarity.

978-0-7618-3410-6 • Hardback
March 2006 • $62.99 • (£39.95)

978-0-7618-3411-3 • Paperback
April 2006 • $36.99 • (£22.95)

Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1860 book, The Conduct of Life is among the gems of his mature works. First published in the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as President, this work poses the questions of human freedom and fate.

This new edition emphasizes Emerson's philosophy and thoughts on such issues as freedom and fate; creativity and established culture; faith, experience, and evidence; the individual, God, and the world; unity and dualism; moral law, grace, and compensation; and wealth and success. Emerson's text has been fully annotated to explain difficult words and to clarify his references. The Introduction, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and Chronology of Emerson's life help the reader understand his distinctive outlook, his contributions to philosophy, and his place in American culture and society.

"Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Callaway, H.G.

ISBN10: 0-7734-5127-7 ISBN13: 978-0-7734-5127-8 Pages: 296 Year: 2008

Description
This new edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Society and Solitude reproduces the original 1870 edition—only updating nineteenth-century prose spellings. Emerson’s text is fully annotated to identify the authors and issues of concern in the twelve essays, and definitions are provided for selected words in Emerson’s impressive vocabulary. The work aims to facilitate a better understanding of Emerson’s late philosophy in relation to his sources, his development and his subsequent influence.


Reviews

“This book is in fact a scholarly jewel suited for a large audience of university students and the educated public in general.” – Professor Jaime Nubiola, Department of Philosophy, University of Navarra, Spain

“The present edition . . . goes beyond the usual compartmentalization of Emerson as an exclusively American figure almost exclusively in the literary milieu. . . . The book shows that Emerson should be read as an important figure in nineteenth-century thought—one who had a strong impact on contemporary philosophers, authors, and artists.” – Dr. Krzysztof Piotr Skowronski, Institute of Philosophy, Opole University, Poland


Table of Contents
Preface
Note to the Text

Introduction: Emerson and the Law of Freedom

I. Society and Solitude
II. Civilization
III. Art
IV. Eloquence
V. Domestic Life
VI. Farming
VII. Works and Days
VIII. Books
IX. Clubs
X. Courage
XI. Success
XII. Old Age

A Brief Emerson Chronology
Bibliography Index"

Article reprinted in: Madill, A., & Gough, B. (2016). Qualitative research and its place in psychological science. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Methodological issues and strategies in clinical research (4th ed., pp. 437–458). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-028

In discussing the place of diverse qualitative research within psychological science, the authors highlight the potential permeability of the quantitative-qualitative boundary and identify different ways of increasing communication between researchers specializing in different methods. Explicating diversity within qualitative research is facilitated, initially, through documenting the range of qualitative data collection and analytic methods available. The authors then consider the notion of paradigmatic frame and review debates on the current and future positioning of qualitative research within psychological science. In so doing, the authors argue that the different ways in which the concept of paradigm can be interpreted allow them to challenge the idea that diverse research paradigms are prima facie incommensurate. Further, reviewing the ways in which proponents of qualitative research are seeking to reconfigure the links between paradigms helps the authors to envisage how communication between research communities can be enhanced. This critical review allows the authors to systematize possible configurations for research practice in psychology on a continuum of paradigm integration and to specify associated criteria for judging intermethod coherence.

In the summer of 2019, the Cavell family, acting as literary executors of Stanley Cavell’s estate, designated Eric Ritter to organize and catalogue the masses of books and documents and papers with which Cavell had filled his study. In the process, Ritter found a surprising amount of unpublished work and presents some of it here for the first time. Building on the archival work as well as on recent scholarship, this article presents Cavell’s conception of philosophy as the public expression of moral perfectionist
practice, for which writing is catalyst, medium, and result. The article then enumerates some consequences that follow from this conception, especially a certain relation of philosophy to the arts and to a notion of philosophical pluralism. It also suggests that key themes in Cavell’s work already converse implicitly with ongoing debates about “American Philosophy” and have great potential to do so more explicitly.

Many scholars believe "On a New List of Categories" is a metaphysical or transcendental deduction. The present essay will argue that Peirce derives the categories by induction and validates their order by prescision. Then the article shall solicit aid from Peirce's early and later writings to explain how the new way to list the categories can serve as a genealogy of signifi cation: how the diff erent types of term, proposition, and argument emerge in the process of reasoning as the diff erent types of signs. Thus, the genealogy of signifi cation would then qualify as a phenomenology of logic as a science of semiotics. Such a science of semiotics will have three types of comparison corresponding to the sign-relation in illation: namely, uniparance, diaparance, and comparance. Then the three types of comparison will occasion three types of relative in diff erent types of propositions: namely, concurrents, disquiparants, and equiparants. Finally, the three types of relative will occasion the diff erent types of sign corresponding to the diff erent types of term: namely, icons, indices, and symbols. With this classifi cation, there is then an explanation of how the process of reasoning is a semiotic process with three forms of valid argument: namely, hypothesis, induction, and deduction.

Vengono qui presentate per la prima volta tutte le lettere disponibili dello scambio epistolare intercorso tra Henri Bergson e William James, tra il 1902 e il 1910, anno della morte di James, integrate dai testi (lettere ad altri, saggi, articoli) che documentano la storia di una straordinaria amicizia filosofica. L’incontro tra il filosofo francese e lo psicologo e filosofo americano non fu soltanto dettato dalle affinità concettuali ed esistenziali, ma soprattutto dall’esigenza di ripensare su basi rinnovate il programma di ricerca della filosofia. A unirli fu l’idea che per la filosofia fosse venuto il tempo di ritornare a parlare la lingua viva dell’esperienza. Solo così la filosofia avrebbe potuto mostrarsi all’altezza del secolo che si stava aprendo e delle esigenze teoretiche che proprio la nuova scienza aveva posto sul tappeto.

Increasing attention is being directed at the impact of fake news on democratic societies across the globe. Scholars in a range of fields are attempting to determine who is behind fake news propaganda efforts, what its effects are, and how to combat it using technological means. This study looks at the ethical issues raised in the fight against fake news. By developing an outline of a pragmatist media ethics, this article examines the complex ethical terrain of the normative challenges of fake news. The pragmatist approach to fake news emphasizes the conflicting values and outcomes at stake in attempts to conceptualize and eradicate fake news. Such an imaginative engagement with the phenomenon of disinformation on its own terms is an essential first step in diagnosing its ethical challenges and potential solutions.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23736992.2019.1672554

In this essay, I use William James's theory of emotion from his Principles of Psychology to develop an account of trauma as fully and non-reductively psychophysiologi-cal. After explaining James's account of emotion as bodily change, I develop a Jamesian understanding of trauma and healing in three steps. Drawing from examples of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced by both soldiers and victims of sexual assault, I argue that (1) all traumatic events, even ones that seem to leave no physical wound, are physiological because they are emotional, and (2) a Jamesian understanding of trauma need not be confined to the individual; it can account for the prememories and postmemories of collective and transgenerational trauma. Finally (3), I argue that because trauma involves bodily movement and change, so too should successful recovery from trauma, a Jamesian insight that supports the use of movement therapies to promote healing.

This course will examine what American pragmatism—both as a tradition of thought and as a method of inquiry—has to offer those engaged in the study of rhetoric. We will examine the thought of classical and modern pragmatists in an attempt to figure out what pragmatism means for theories of rhetoric and communication, ideal senses of community, the art of rhetoric, leadership, as well as method in the study of communication. Attention will be paid to the advantages pragmatism might offer as a guiding theory compared to standard approaches to the study of rhetoric. The thought of Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty will assume particular prominence in this course. We will also look at contemporary pragmatists in rhetoric, communication studies, philosophy, and beyond to see how they engage the ideas of rhetoric and communication. Students will be expected to emerge from this course with a grasp of the basic problematics driving classical and modern pragmatism, as well as how these relate to issues in rhetoric and in communication studies. Students are encouraged to link pragmatism to their particular research interests, practices or artifacts, or methods of study in the course's culminating research paper assignment.

From the century of independence to the contemporary, Montaigne acted as an influential voice in the ongoing transatlantic conversation that shaped the American identity. This special issue offers a series of transhistorical and interdisciplinary studies that draw the dense network of contexts, uses and meanings assumed by Montaigne’s figure and work in America, along different fields (literature, philosophy, political theory, and gender studies).

This special issue edited and directed by Emiliano Ferrari offers a series of transhistorical and interdisciplinary studies that draw the dense network of contexts, uses and meanings assumed by Montaigne’s figure and work in America, along different fields (literature, philosophy, political theory, cultural and gender studies). What emerges from the articles presented is a clear picture of the diversity of contexts, uses, and meanings that Montaigne and his Essais might have had along the progressive process of political and cultural self-definition of America since the 18th century. From the century of independence to the contemporary, from Benjamin Franklin to Judith Butler, Montaigne acted as an influential voice in the ongoing transatlantic conversation that shaped the American social, political, and cultural identity.

[Contributors to this issue: N. Kenny (Oxford), W. E. Engel (Sewanee), D. Thompson (South Carolina), D. R. Brunstetter (UC Irvine), P. Desan (Chicago), J.-C. Laursen and K. Pham (UC Riverside), C. Edelman (Incarnate Word), T. Gontier (Lyon 3), T. Birchal and V. Sommavilla (Minas Gerais) M. Schachter (Durham), E. Ferrari (Lyon 3), Z. Zalloua (Whitman College)].