Mining the Past, Acting in the Present, and Enriching the Future

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The year 2012, in one sense, marks the 40th Anniversary of our Society, for it was in 1972 that John Lachs suggested to some of his colleagues interested in American Philosophy that they consider starting a new organization. The following year, this “American Philosophy” group held a symposium on “Possibilities for American Philosophy” at the Western Philosophy Association meeting. At that time the group’s name was changed to “Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy,” and in 1974 the first independent annual meeting of the Society was held at Vanderbilt University.1 The Society’s name has stimulated contention for various reasons, but reflecting on forty years of this group, I want to say “we have come a long way.” Philosophy has advanced because of the work of this group and others whose philosophical vision is compatible with our vision. And what is that vision? In my view, it at least involves three types of action and reflection: (1) “respecting, exploring, and ‘mining’ the past” for its own value as well as to ground and stimulate creative thought about both philosophical and contemporary world problems; (2) “acting in the present” by questioning the status quo, clarifying issues of human life so that more effective solutions to personal and social problems would be found and, as philosophers, becoming “public” and “engaged”; and (3) enriching the future of philosophical and human reflection in at least the following four ways. First, we are using and should continue to use the resources of our tradition to enrich the exploration of contemporary philosophical issues whether in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, aesthetics, ethics, social and political philosophy, or philosophy of religion. Second, in contention against the continuing segmentation of philosophy into splinter interest groups, we are and