Preface
Introduction: Why Speculative Philosophy Should Not Shut Down
I. The Postmodernist Debate
II. Modernity and Modernism
III. The End of Philosophy
IV. Ways around Modernism
PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY AROUND MODERNISM
One. Charles S. Peirce as a Non-Modernist Thinker
I. Peirce's Rejection of Foundations: Hypothesis, Habits, and Signs
II. Reality: Generality and the Habits of Nature
III. Speculative Metaphysics
IV. Religion
Peircean Postscript: Postmodernism Again
Two. Alfred North Whitehead and Romanticism
I. Nature: Mechanism and Freedom
II. Modernism and Fragmentation
III. Modernism: A Non-Postmodernist Critique
IV. System's Way around Modernism
Three. Metaphysics in the Twentieth Century
I. Whitehead and the Basic Ideas
II. Weiss and the Problematic of Metaphysics
III. Metaphysics as Philosophy
IV. The American Highroad of Metaphysics
Four. Contributions and Limits of Process Philosophy
I. Speculative Philosophy and the Ontological Question
II. Whitehead's Model of Nature
III. Enduring Personal Identity and the Texture of Life
IV. Value
Five. Hegel and Whitehead on Totality
I. Hegel: Finite and Infinite
II. Negative Dialectic: The Trick of the Modernist and Postmodernist
III. Whitehead: Totality in Experience
IV. World and System
Six. On Systems as Speculative Hypotheses
I. Philosophy as System
II. System as Fallible
III. System as Tolerant
IV. System as Engaged
Seven. Reflections on American Philosophy
I. Emerson on the Range of American Philosophic Practice
II. Nature, Books, and Action
III. American Philosophy as World Philsophy
IV. A Role for the Professional Philosopher
PART TWO: POLITICS AROUND MODERNISM
Eight. Power, Revolution, and Religion
I. Power and Narrative
II. The End of Narrative and Power
III. The Road of Covenant Theology
IV. Covenant as Revolution
Nine. Beyond Capitalist and Class Analysis
I. The Need for New Theory in the Social Sciences
II. Liberal Capitalism and Marxism: Rejection of Market and Class
III. Metaphysics of Social Analysis
IV. On the Structure of Social Theory
Ten. Freedom, Tolerance, and the Puritan Ethic
I. The Principle of Universal Public Responsibility
II. Puritan Commitment
III. Tolerance
IV. Freedom
Eleven. Leadership, Responsibility, and Value
I. Value
II. Courage
III. Leadership
IV. A Confession, a Caveat, and a Homily
Twelve. Technology and the Richness of the World
I. Natural Richness Denied
II. Infinite Denisty: An Ontological Vision
III. Infinite Density: A Cosmological Vision
IV. Richness as the Infinite in the Finite
Notes
Bibliography
Index