Wilderness in America

Abstract

The philosophy of Henry Bugbee defies traditional academic categorization. Calvin O. Schrag, Professor Emeritus of Purdue University, once lamented that Bugbee was one of the more marginalized philosophers of the twentieth century, while the late Willard van Orman Quine of Harvard University, world-renown analytic philosopher and logician, described him as the ultimate exemplar of the examined life. Bugbee’s most recognized work, The Inward Morning: A Philosophical Exploration in Journal Form, consists of sequences of journal entries. Bugbee’s writings are remarkably different than most anything written in twentieth-century American philosophy. As an undergraduate, already aware of the need to overcome the limitations of formal philosophical writing, Bugbee acknowledged: “Certainly anyone who throws his entire personality into his work must to some extent adopt an aesthetic attitude and medium.” The purpose of this book is to remove the philosophical writings of Henry Bugbee from relative obscurity, making them more accessible to the wider public. Beginning with an introductory account of Bugbee’s “experiential naturalism,” the development of his thought is traced from his student writings in Part One to some select published writings in Part Two, followed by heretofore unpublished writings in Part Three. Part Four consists of an in-depth interview conducted during the twilight years of his life. The book concludes with a rich collection of appendices that are intended to shed light upon the unique person Bugbee in fact was. The end-in-view throughout has been to allow Bugbee the opportunity to speak in his own words and, when appropriate, through the words of others: those both familiar with the man as well as his philosophy.