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Summary
This anthology demonstrates the richness and diversity of the American intellectual heritage. In it we see how Jonathan Edwards grapples with the problem of how to reconcile freedom and responsibility with Calvinist religious beliefs; how Franklin and Jefferson exemplified American enlightenment thought; and how the Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, formulated their particular romantic idealist beliefs.
A second and significant portion of the anthology is devoted to Pragmatism. Substantive excerpts from Peirce, James and Dewey, as well as Royce, are collected here.
A third part is devoted to other Twentieth-Century American philosophies. No other collection of writings in this field includes the breadth of coverage that this one does. Among the chapters in this third part of the book are those on early Process Philosophy, Phenomenology, Positivism, and Language Philosophies. Selections from such philosophers as Whitehead, Weiss, Buchler, Gurwitsch, Sellars, Quine, Davidson, and Rawls, along with many others are included in this part. A final chapter is devoted to twentieth-century American Moral Philosophy.
The book is specifically designed to be used as a text for courses in American philosophy. A substantive introduction that emphasizes the historical setting as well as major interests and ideas of the philosophers accompanies each chapter. Extensive bibliographies and study guide questions follow each chapter. The selections include more than any one course will cover, but in their completeness also allow individual teachers and readers to select what they want.
Barbara MacKinnon is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.
Table of Contents
Preface
I. Early American Philosophy
1. Puritan Thought
Jonathan Edwards
Study Questions
Bibliography
2. The American Enlightenment
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
Study Questions
Bibliography
3. Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Study Questions
Bibliography
II. Classical American Philosophy
4. Evolutionary Thought
John Fiske
Chauncey Wright
John Dewey
Study Questions
Bibliography
5. Pragmatism
Charles Sanders Pierce
Study Questions
Bibliography
6. The Pragmatism and Metaphysics of C.S. Pierce
Study Questions
Bibliography
7. The Pragmatism and Radical Empiricism of William James
Study Questions
Bibliography
8. The Naturalism and Experimentalism of John Dewey
Study Questions
Bibliography
9. The Idealism and Absolute Pragmatism of Josiah Royce
