Classical American Philosophers Research Articles

George Santayana and the Problem of Petitionary Prayer

Abstract Scholars of the classical American philosophical tradition have not written much about prayer, despite the fact that almost every single one of the major figures of this tradition acknowledged its significance. The gap in the literature is notable in the case of George Santayana, who discusses prayer in several of his major works. And of all the classical American philosophers, Santayana may have the most fully developed treatment of prayer, particularly as it relates to the problem of petitionary prayer. Yet his account of payer has not received much attention. This is surprising since, on the one hand, many of Santayana’s other views on religion and spirituality have been widely commented on, and, on the other hand, prayer has been a prominent topic in philosophy of religion in recent decades. And it makes sense for scholars of the classical American tradition nowadays to consider Santayana’s views about prayer, at the least because this tradition concerns itself with the problems of ordinary people, and to most Americans–and even to some atheist Americans–prayer seems to matter a great deal. Santayana’s treatment of prayer can be organized into two phases. First, he offers a twofold case against the common view that petitionary prayer is materially efficacious–that is, the view that petitionary prayer can do something to affect whether God brings about a desired state of affairs that would not have otherwise obtained had the request for it not been made.

Healing the Planet

Our planet is sick and perhaps on a tipping point of extinction. The causes are well known—global warming, the collapse of the world economy, human greed, and thermonuclear war—to name but a few agents at work in the contemporary world. America and China hold the world's destiny in their grip. How they will interact is unknown. What is known is that both civilizations have in their traditions the ways and means to reverse this approaching apocalypse. Each country is now passing through cultural explosions. This article searches classical Chinese and American philosophy for concepts and social forms that can give shape to this era of upheaval. I have confidence in the genius of Confucius as well as that of certain great classical American philosophers. Read together they can help us come to deal with both the decay of established orders and the overwhelming novelty now sweeping through our consciousness.

Idealism vs. Pragmatism and Other False Dichotomies

first of all, I want to thank Micah Hester and Jackie Kegley so much for their generous and pertinent comments on my work. They are both too kind, I think, and I am not only grateful but also impressed by their taking the time to acquaint themselves with a wide range of my articles and my books, some of which are pretty hard to access these days. As I thought of a response to their comments on my work, I was reminded of how Hester distinguished its three main thrusts as classical American philosophy (especially in the writings of Royce), feminism, and bioethics. In my professional life, I came to each of these content areas in succession, mainly incorporating each previous focus into the other. But then I realized that my interest and involvement in each was sparked and sustained, in a very Deweyan way, by my own life experience, that is, my personal life. Events in my personal life have not been entirely separable from my professional pursuits, and this has led me to describe my remarks today as a critique of the dichotomy that is often assumed between the personal and professional domains. I think this critique is applicable to other often-assumed dichotomies such as those between mind and body, or reason and feeling, or theory and practice, as well as in the relationship between idealism and pragmatism that I identified long ago in my work on Royce (Mahowald, Idealistic Pragmatism). In the intervening years, I have become quite comfortable with describing myself, not just Royce, as an idealistic pragmatist. Both Hester and Kegley have well articulated my overall approach, my understanding of an idealistic pragmatism, as applicable to issues involving nondominant groups in society, especially in the context of health care. Both have stressed the standpoint theory that is, I believe, another way of expressing the perspectival account of knowledge found in the classical American philosophers. My central starting point, which Hester accurately identifies,

Healing the Planet

Our planet is sick and perhaps on a tipping point of extinction. The causes are well known—global warming, the collapse of the world economy, human greed, and thermonuclear war—to name but a few agents at work in the contemporary world. America and China hold the world’s destiny in their grip. How they will interact is unknown. What is known is that both civilizations have in their traditions the ways and means to reverse this approaching apocalypse. Each country is now passing through cultural explosions. This article searches classical Chinese and American philosophy for concepts and social forms that can give shape to this era of upheaval. I have confidence in the genius of Confucius as well as that of certain great classical American philosophers. Read together they can help us come to deal with both the decay of established orders and the overwhelming novelty now sweeping through our consciousness.

Experience as a prelude to disaster: American philosophy and the fear of death

By focusing on the thought of Classical American philosophers, this article addresses the existential problem of the fear of death. Drawing on the experiences and philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Jane Addams as a theoretical framework, a prescriptive claim regarding how to confront human mortality is advanced. It is suggested that embracing the notion of experience as a prelude to the disaster of death can be – despite appearances to the contrary – a useful approach to navigating exigencies connected with mortality and, in particular, fear of death. The essay contributes to a small but growing body of literature on the topic of death in American philosophy scholarship, while addressing a perennial problem receiving treatment in contemporary popular discourse.

Classical American Philosophy and Modern Medical Ethics: The Case of Richard Cabot

In this essay we argue that Richard Cabot (1868–1939) developed a unique approach to medical practice and medical ethics that has been largely overlooked in the history of medicine and philosophy. His impact was significant both in terms of transforming medicine and in encouraging philosophy, particularly ethical theory, to shape the delivery of healthcare. Cabot’s approach was defined by the principle of fallibilism, a unique understanding of virtue ethics, and the ethics of care, all of which he inherited from the classical American philosophers who were his teachers and friends in the second half of the nineteenth century (principally Ralph Waldo Emerson, C.S. Peirce, William James, and Josiah Royce). Cabot translated this philosophical legacy into medical practice at Mass General and Harvard Medical School, insisting that his students understand case medicine as fostering virtuous clinical practice. His support of the Clinicopathological Conferences and his creation of the first department of social work were extensions of this basic sentiment. Cabot’s was a holistic practice that treated patients as genuine individuals, a practice that remains in scarce supply in today’s medical field. Returning to Cabot and the classical American tradition stands to revive virtue ethics and the ethics of care in medical practice and education.

On the Very Good Idea of a Conceptual Scheme

richard rorty has argued that Donald Davidson can be classified as a neopragmatist. To this end, Rorty has tried to show that Davidson’s views share important similarities with those of Peirce, James, and Dewey. Davidson, for his part, has tended to resist Rorty’s attempts to classify his views in this way. Interestingly, the reasons for Rorty’s classification and the reasons for Davidson’s resistance share a common trait: an appeal to the elimination of the dualism of conceptual scheme and experiential content on the basis of an assumed background of shared beliefs. According to Rorty, Davidson’s background of shared beliefs is closely related to the notion of funded experience found in those thinkers often classified as Classic American Philosophers or pragmatists (13). But Davidson rejects pragmatism along with the relativisms and empiricisms that fall when the scheme-content dualism is eliminated (Davidson, Inquiries xviii). It is my contention that Rorty errs in including Davidson with Classic American Philosophers in virtue of his assumed background of shared beliefs, and Davidson is wrong to flatly reject the scheme-content distinction as the third and final dogma of empiricism. I intend to show that Davidson’s background of shared belief differs significantly from the corresponding notion in the works of John Dewey, and that Dewey’s position provides resources for eliminating the incoherence that Davidson finds in the scheme-content distinction without the outright rejection of a helpful tool of inquiry. This contributes to a defense of Dewey’s empirical philosophy against Davidson’s supposed defeat of empiricism.

Practically "Saved": An Inquiry into the Foundations of Royce's Development

Traditionally interpreted as an absolute idealist and therefore as an anomaly in his own milieu, Josiah Royce has been often mischaracterized over the course of this century. Attention has been overly focused on Royce's commitment to the epistemological Absolute of his middle writ ings.2 Royce's dialectically adversarial relationship with his best friend William James has had a tendency to exaggerate the differences between the two of them and to obscure the many deep philosophical commit ments they both shared. The purpose of this paper is to show that Royce's theology is mainly a consequence of his commitment to the Kantian project in philosophy and that he thus had more in common with the Harvard pragmatists than is commonly ascribed to him.3 While neo-Kantianism is usually interpreted as idealism (and for good reasons), there is a more practi cal side to the Kantian project. This strain runs from Immanuel Kant through nearly the entire pragmatic tradition and includes Royce as easily as it does James and Charles Sanders Peirce. Thus, as a by-prod uct, this paper will be a resource for a more inclusive and tightly knit view of the classical American philosophers. Primarily, however, this paper eventuates in a focus on the concept of salvation to illustrate that the primacy of Royce's thinking as a whole was based more deeply on his commitment to practical reason than on a commitment to any abso lutes. The progression of Royce's thought, as well as its theological culmination in his two-volume The Problem of Christianity, it will be argued, can be best explained by uncovering Royce's commitment to the priority of practical reason over speculative reason. This position

His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the most important and influential of the classical American philosophers, is credited as the inventor of the philosophical school of pragmatism. The scope and significance of his work have had a lasting effect not only in several fields of philosophy but also in mathematics, the history and philosophy of science, and the theory of signs, as well as in literary and cultural studies. Inspired by his friendship and correspondence with the novelist Walker Percy, who himself was absorbed by the life and writings of Peirce, Ketner adopts a narrative strategy that lets Peirce tell his own early life story. He weaves the voluminous components of an intellectual biography that are scattered throughout Peirce's published and unpublished writings into a novelistic account that reads like a mystery. Ketner offers satisfying explanations and convincing hypotheses for a number of intimate and controversial aspects of Peirce's eventful yet frustrated life, including his inability to find a permanent teaching position at any university, the ancestry of Peirce's wife Juliette and the source of his family's hostility toward her, and the previously unknown fact that Peirce actually had three wives instead of two.

Classic American Philosophers

Classic American Philosophers

WHITEHEAD'S GIFFORD LECTURES*

The Southern Journal of PhilosophyVolume 7, Issue 4 p. 329-338 WHITEHEAD'S GIFFORD LECTURES* Victor Lowe, Victor Lowe The Johns Hopkins University Victor Lowe was educated at Case Institute and at Harvard, where he studied with Whitehead. He has taught at Syracuse University and Ohio State, and is now professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins. In addition to Understanding Whitehead (Johns Hopkins, 1962), he has written various essays on Whitehead, including contributions to Classic American Philosophers (ed. M. H. Fisch, 1951), The Relevance of Whitehead (ed. Leclerc, 1961), and Studies in the Philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce: Second Series (ed. Moore and Robin, 1964).Search for more papers by this author Victor Lowe, Victor Lowe The Johns Hopkins University Victor Lowe was educated at Case Institute and at Harvard, where he studied with Whitehead. He has taught at Syracuse University and Ohio State, and is now professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins. In addition to Understanding Whitehead (Johns Hopkins, 1962), he has written various essays on Whitehead, including contributions to Classic American Philosophers (ed. M. H. Fisch, 1951), The Relevance of Whitehead (ed. Leclerc, 1961), and Studies in the Philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce: Second Series (ed. Moore and Robin, 1964).Search for more papers by this author First published: Winter 1970 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.1970.tb02069.xCitations: 1 * The research on which this article is based was done for the authorized biography of Whitehead which the author is writing. In the present connection, he is especially indebted to the late T. North Whitehead for placing the extant family correspondence at his disposal. Thanks are also due to the American Council of Learned Societies, whose grant in aid of research enabled him to visit Edinburgh in 1965. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume7, Issue4Winter 1970Pages 329-338 RelatedInformation

A History of Philosophy. By Frederick Mayer / A History of American Thought: An Introduction. By Frederick Mayer / Classical American Philosophers. Edited by Max Fisch.

A History of Philosophy. By Frederick Mayer / A History of American Thought: An Introduction. By Frederick Mayer / Classical American Philosophers. Edited by Max Fisch.

Classic American Philosophers.

Classic American Philosophers.

Classic American Philosophers. Peirce, James, Royce, Santayana, Dewey, Whitehead.

It is increasingly apparant that American philosophy has had its classical period, corresponding to the Greek classical period - Democritus through Aristotle; the medieval - Christian Abelard through Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus; The British - Bacon through Hume; and the German - Kant through Hegel. America's classical period began just after the Civil War and ended just before the Second World War. Its canon is already nearly fixed, and it includes six philosophers: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce, George Santayana, John Dewey, and Alfred North Whitehead. The primary purpose of this voume is to introduce these philosophers to readers who do not yet know their writings at first hand. The writings of each of these philosophers is enhanved by a thoughtful introduction to each. The volume as a whole is framed by a detailed introduction exlporing these philosopher's place in America's Classic Period of Philosophy. The book is perfect for beginning students of or enthusiasts about American philosophy and philosophy in general. The text is followed by an appendix which makes suggestions for further readings produced by these classic American philosophers.