American Philosophy: 1840-Present

Catalog description

American philosophy comes into its own in the mid-nineteenth century, emancipating itself both from its origins in Protestant religion and from the tutelage of European role-models. The 1840s see the rise of the New England Transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau), who emphasized imagination, individualism, equality, and moral progress. During the decades of national reconsolidation following the Civil War, Pragmatism arises (Peirce, James, Dewey, Royce). Its practitioners innovations help set the tone for many twentieth-century intellectual developments: the emphasis on history, practice, and pluralism; the break with metaphysics and intellectualistic approaches to science, morality, and society; and the commitment to a "radical empiricism" broad enough to embrace scientific observation, religious experience, and social experimentation. Fuller's early feminism, Addams's social progressivism, and Du Bois's reflections on racial inequality constitute uniquely American moments in the history of philosophy. Certain more recent philosophers (Putnam, Rorty, Cavell, and Brandom) have renewed and extended the pragmatist legacy. The course evaluates the problems raised by these philosophers and traces their influences on American society, politics, and culture. One of the principal goals is to enable students to understand better this rich philosophical tradition and its importance-both critical and constructive-in the contemporary American landscape.