Philosophy Americana: Making Philosophy at Home in American Culture (American Philosophy)

309 Pages·2006·1.35 MB·English

by  Douglas Anderson

philosophy americana
.................15741$ $$FM 02-13-0614:42:06 PS PAGEi
.................15741$ $$FM 02-13-0614:42:06 PS PAGEii
p h i l o s o p h y
a m e r i c a n a
Making Philosophy at Home in
American Culture
(cid:2)
douglas r anderson
.
fordham university press new york 2006
.................15741$ $$FM 02-13-0614:42:06 PS PAGEiii
Copyright(cid:2)2006FordhamUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for
briefquotationsinprintedreviews,withoutthepriorpermissionofthe
publisher.
AmericanPhilosophySeries,No.18
ISSN1073-2764
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Anderson,DouglasR.
PhilosophyAmericana:makingphilosophyathomeinAmerican
culture/DouglasR.Anderson.—1sted.
p.cm.—(Americanphilosophyseries;no.18)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8232-2550-X(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN0-8232-2551-8(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Philosophy,American—20thcentury. 2.UnitesStates—
Civilization—20thcentury. I.Title. II.Series
B936.A53 2006
191—dc22
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
07 06 5 4 3 2 1
Firstedition
.................15741$ $$FM 02-13-0614:42:06 PS PAGEiv
Contents
(cid:2)
Acknowledgments vii
Preface ix
Introduction:Inheritance,Teaching, andtheInsaneAngels
ofAmericanCulture:OurCulturalInvisibility 1
1 Some PreliminaryRemarksontheOriginsof
Pragmatism 19
2 Royce,Philosophy,and Wandering:AJobDescription 33
3 WildernessasPhilosophicalHome 50
4 WorkingCertaintyandDeweyan Wisdom 65
5 WildnessasPoliticalAct 85
6 ‘‘AfterAll,He’s JustaMan’’:TheWildSideofLifein
Country Music 94
7 WilliamJamesandtheWildBeastsofthePhilosophical
Desert 112
8 JohnDewey’sSensibleMysticism 129
9 ‘‘BorntoRun’’:MaleMysticismontheRoad 142
10 Philosophy asTeaching:James’s‘‘KnightErrant,’’
ThomasDavidson 155
11 Learningand Teaching:Gambling,Love,and Growth
(withMichaelVentimiglia) 167
12 Emerson’s PlatonizingofAmericanThought 188
{ v }
.................15741$ CNTS 02-13-0614:42:09 PS PAGEv
vi contents
13 AmericanLossinCavell’sEmerson 206
14 EmersonandKerouac: GrievousAngelsofHope
andLoss 221
15 PragmaticIntellectuals:FacingLossintheSpirit of
AmericanPhilosophy 234
Notes 255
Bibliography 281
Index 289
.................15741$ CNTS 02-13-0614:42:09 PS PAGEvi
Acknowledgments
(cid:2)
I
would like to thank the following journals for permission to re-
print here, in whole or in part, articles that were previously pub-
lished. ‘‘Philosophy as Teaching: James’s ‘Knight Errant’’’ appeared
inTheJournalofSpeculativePhilosophyinfall2004.‘‘Unrespectability
and the Wild Beasts of the Philosophical Desert’’ appeared in the
samejournalinwinter2003.‘‘CreativeTeachers:Risk,Responsibility,
andLove’’waspublishedinJournalofEducationin2002.Anessayon
Thoreau,entitled‘‘WildnessasPoliticalAct,’’appearedinPersonalist
Forum in spring 2000. Finally, ‘‘American Loss in Cavell’s Emerson’’
was published by the Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society in
winter 1993. I would like also to thank David O’Hara for the cover
photography and Gary Green for the generous use of his College
HeightsExxonstation.
{ vii }
.................15741$ $ACK 02-13-0614:42:11 PS PAGEvii
.................15741$ $ACK 02-13-0614:42:12 PS PAGEviii
Preface
(cid:2)
A
lthough the classical American philosophers published books,
the great majority of these were collections of essays. Indeed,
with the exception of Royce, who worked in a variety of ways, the
American philosophical tradition is a tradition of essays, talks, and
lectures collected into single volumes. Philosophy Americana is writ-
ten withthis tradition inmind. Nevertheless, abook of essayshas its
own kind of economy. Though I hope that each essay can stand
alone, I also hope that they work together to provide a landscape or
at least a horizon of my own philosophical outlook. The one generic
theme I might venture as unifying the essays is the relationship be-
tween American philosophy and other features of American culture.
I am interested in how philosophers work in this culture. I employ
the term ‘‘Americana’’ to draw a rough analogy to the musical genre
ofthesamename.Americanamusicistwice‘‘American.’’Itisrooted
in the traditional musical practices of the immigrants to the United
States:blues, gospel,Celtic, folk,country,Tex-Mex,swing,bluegrass,
old-time, rock and roll, reggae, and, I would add, more recently, rap
and hip-hop. No doubt there are some category mistakes in this list,
but part of the import of ‘‘Americana music’’ is precisely its indeter-
minateness, and thus its openness to new and innovative musical
styles. At the same time, Americana music, especially in its lyrical
content,tellsusmuchaboutourAmericanculture—aboutourselves.
In Philosophy Americana I aim at doing something similar, drawing
on the philosophical practices of American thinkers and addressing
issuesthatariseinpopularculture.
{ ix }
.................15741$ PREF 02-13-0614:42:15 PS PAGEix