American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. TheInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collective American identity over the history of the nation".[1] The philosophy of theFounding Fathers of the United States is largely seen as an extension of theEuropean Enlightenment. A small number of philosophies are known as American in origin, namelypragmatism andtranscendentalism, with their most prominent proponents being the philosophersWilliam James andRalph Waldo Emerson respectively.
Although there had been various people, communities, and nations inhabiting the territories that would later become the United States, all of whom engaged with philosophical questions such as the nature of theself, interpersonalrelationships, and origins and destinies, most histories of the American philosophical tradition have traditionally begun withEuropean colonization, especially with the arrival of thePuritans inNew England.[2] Documents such as theMayflower Compact (1620), followed by theFundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) and theMassachusetts Body of Liberties (1641), made manifest basic socio-political positions, which served as foundations for the newly established communities.[3] These set the early colonial philosophy into a religious tradition (PuritanProvidentialism), and there was also an emphasis on the relationship between the individual and the community.
Thinkers such asJohn Winthrop emphasized the public life over the private. Holding that the former takes precedence over the latter, while other writers, such asRoger Williams (co-founder ofRhode Island) held thatreligious tolerance was more integral than trying to achieve religious homogeneity in a community.[4]
18th-century American philosophy may be broken into two halves, the first half being marked by the theology of ReformedPuritanCalvinism influenced by theGreat Awakening as well as Enlightenment natural philosophy, and the second by the nativemoral philosophy of theAmerican Enlightenment taught in American colleges.[5] They were used "in the tumultuous years of the 1750s and 1770s" to "forge a new intellectual culture for the United states",[6] which led to the American incarnation of theEuropean Enlightenment that is associated with thepolitical thought of the Founding Fathers.[1]
The 18th century saw the introduction ofFrancis Bacon and the Enlightenment philosophersDescartes,Newton,Locke,Wollaston, andBerkeley to Colonial British America. Two native-born Americans,Samuel Johnson andJonathan Edwards, were first influenced by these philosophers; they then adapted and extended their Enlightenment ideas to develop their own American theology and philosophy. Both were originally ordained Puritan Congregationalist ministers who embraced much of the new learning of the Enlightenment. Both were Yale educated and Berkeley influencedidealists who became influential college presidents. Both were influential in the development of Americanpolitical philosophy and the works of theFounding Fathers. But Edwards based his reformed Puritantheology onCalvinist doctrine, while Johnson converted to the Anglican episcopal religion (theChurch of England), then based his new Americanmoral philosophy on William Wollaston'sNatural Religion. Late in the century,Scottish innate or common sense realism replaced the native schools of these two rivals in the college philosophy curricula of American colleges; it would remain the dominant philosophy in American academia up to the Civil War.[7]
The first 100 years or so of college education in the American Colonies were dominated in New England by the Puritan theology ofWilliam Ames and "the sixteenth-century logical methods ofPetrus Ramus."[8] Then in 1714, a donation of 800 books from England, collected byColonial AgentJeremiah Dummer, arrived atYale.[9] They contained what became known as "The New Learning", including "the works of Locke, Descartes, Newton,Boyle, andShakespeare",[9] and otherEnlightenment era authors not known to the tutors and graduates of PuritanYale andHarvard colleges. They were first opened and studied by an eighteen-year-old graduate student fromGuilford, Connecticut, the young AmericanSamuel Johnson, who had also just found and readLord Francis Bacon's 1605 bookAdvancement of Learning. Johnson wrote in hisAutobiography, "All this was like a flood of day to his low state of mind" and that "he found himself like one at once emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day."[10] He now considered what he had learned at Yale "nothing but the scholastic cobwebs of a few little English and Dutch systems that would hardly now be taken up in the street."[11]
Johnson was appointed tutor at Yale in 1716. He began to teach the Enlightenment curriculum there, and thus began theAmerican Enlightenment. One of his students for a brief time was a fifteen-year-old Jonathan Edwards. "These two brilliant Yale students of those years, each of whom was to become a noted thinker and college president, exposed the fundamental nature of the problem" of the "incongruities between the old learning and the new."[12] But each had a quite different view on the issues ofpredestination versusfreewill,original sin versus the pursuit of happiness through practicingvirtue, and the education of children.
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Jonathan Edwards was "America's most important and original philosophical theologian."[13] Noted for his energetic sermons, such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (which is said to have begun theFirst Great Awakening), Edwards emphasized "the absolute sovereignty of God and the beauty of God's holiness."[13] Working to unite ChristianPlatonism with anempiricistepistemology, with the aid ofNewtonian physics, Edwards was deeply influenced byGeorge Berkeley, himself an empiricist, and Edwards derived his importance of the immaterial for the creation of human experience from Bishop Berkeley.
The non-material mind consists of understanding and will, and it is understanding, interpreted in a Newtonian framework, that leads to Edwards' fundamental metaphysical category of Resistance. Whatever features an object may have, it has these properties because the object resists. Resistance itself is the exertion of God's power, and it can be seen inNewton's laws of motion, where an object is "unwilling" to change its current state of motion; an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion.
Though Edwards reformed Puritan theology using Enlightenment ideas from natural philosophy, Locke, Newton, and Berkeley, he remained a Calvinist andhard determinist. Jonathan Edwards also rejected thefreedom of the will, saying that "we can do as we please, but we cannot please as we please." According to Edwards, neither good works nor self-originating faith lead to salvation, but rather it is the unconditional grace of God which stands as the sole arbiter of human fortune.
While the 17th- and early 18th-century American philosophical tradition was decidedly marked by religious themes and the Reformation reason of Ramus, the 18th century saw more reliance onscience and the new learning of theAge of Enlightenment, along with an idealist belief in the perfectibility of human beings through teachingethics andmoral philosophy,laissez-faireeconomics, and a new focus on political matters.[14]
Samuel Johnson has been called "The Founder of American Philosophy"[15] and the "first important philosopher in colonial America and author of the first philosophy textbook published there".[16] He was interested not only in philosophy and theology, but in theories of education, and in knowledge classification schemes, which he used to writeencyclopedias, developcollege curricula, and createlibrary classification systems.[17]
Johnson was a proponent of the view that "the essence of true religion ismorality", and believed that "the problem ofdenominationalism"[18] could be solved by teaching a non-denominational common moral philosophy acceptable to all religions. So he crafted one. Johnson's moral philosophy was influenced by Descartes and Locke, but more directly byWilliam Wollaston's 1722 bookReligion of Nature Delineated and the idealist philosopher of George Berkeley, with whom Johnson studied while Berkeley was in Rhode Island between 1729 and 1731. Johnson strongly rejected Calvin's doctrine of Predestination and believed that people were autonomous moral agents endowed with freewill and Lockeannatural rights. His fusion philosophy of Natural Religion and Idealism, which has been called "American Practical Idealism",[19] was developed as a series of college textbooks in seven editions between 1731 and 1754. These works, and his dialogueRaphael, or The Genius of the English America,written at the time of theStamp Act crisis, go beyond his Wollaston and Berkeley influences;[20]Raphaelincludes sections oneconomics,psychology, the teaching of children, andpolitical philosophy.
His moral philosophy is defined in his college textbookElementa Philosophica as "the Art of pursuing our highest Happiness by the practice of virtue".[21] It was promoted by PresidentThomas Clap of Yale,Benjamin Franklin andProvost William Smith atThe Academy and College of Philadelphia, and taught atKing's College (nowColumbia University), which Johnson founded in 1754. It was influential in its day: it has been estimated that about half of American college students between 1743 and 1776,[22] and over half of the men who contributed to theDeclaration of Independence or debated it[23] were connected to Johnson's American Practical Idealism moral philosophy. Three members of theCommittee of Five who edited theDeclaration of Independence were closely connected to Johnson: his educational partner, promoter, friend, and publisherBenjamin Franklin ofPennsylvania, his King's College studentRobert R. Livingston ofNew York, and his sonWilliam Samuel Johnson's legal protegee and Yale treasurerRoger Sherman ofConnecticut. Johnson's son William Samuel Johnson was the Chairman of theCommittee of Style that wrote the U.S. Constitution: edits to a draft version[24] are in his hand in theLibrary of Congress.
About the time of theStamp Act, interest rose in civil andpolitical philosophy. Many of theFounding Fathers wrote extensively on political issues, includingJohn Adams,John Dickinson,Alexander Hamilton,John Jay,Thomas Jefferson,Benjamin Franklin, andJames Madison. In continuing with the chief concerns of the Puritans in the 17th century, the Founding Fathers debated the interrelationship between God, the state, and the individual. Resulting from this were theUnited States Declaration of Independence, passed in 1776, and theUnited States Constitution, ratified in 1788.
The Constitution sets forth afederal andrepublican form ofgovernment that is marked by abalance of powers accompanied by achecks and balances system between the three branches of government: ajudicial branch, anexecutive branch led by thePresident, and alegislative branch composed of abicameral legislature where theHouse of Representatives is thelower house and theSenate is theupper house.[25]
Although theDeclaration of Independence does contain references to the Creator, the God of Nature, Divine Providence, and the Supreme Judge of the World, the Founding Fathers were not exclusivelytheistic. Some professed personal concepts ofdeism, as was characteristic of other European Enlightenment thinkers, such asMaximilien Robespierre,François-Marie Arouet (better known by hispen name,Voltaire), andRousseau.[26] However, an investigation of 106 contributors to theDeclaration of Independence between September 5, 1774, and July 4, 1776, found that only two men (Franklin and Jefferson), both American Practical Idealists in their moral philosophy, might be called quasi-deists or non-denominational Christians;[27] all the others were publicly members of denominational Christian churches. Even Franklin professed the need for a "public religion"[28] and would attend various churches from time to time. Jefferson was vestryman at the evangelical Calvinistical Reformed Church ofCharlottesville, Virginia, a church he himself founded and named in 1777,[29] suggesting that at this time of life he was rather strongly affiliated with a denomination and that the influence of Whitefield and Edwards reached even into Virginia. But the founders who studied or embraced Johnson, Franklin, and Smith's non-denominational moral philosophy were at least influenced by the deistic tendencies of Wollaston's Natural Religion, as evidenced by "the Laws of Nature, and Nature's God" and "the pursuit of Happiness" in theDeclaration.[30]
An alternate moral philosophy to the domestic American Practical Idealism, called variously Scottish Innate Sense moral philosophy (by Jefferson),[31] Scottish Commonsense Philosophy,[32] orScottish common sense realism, was introduced into American Colleges in 1768[33] byJohn Witherspoon, aScottish immigrant and educator who was invited to be President of the College of New Jersey (nowPrinceton University). He was aPresbyterian minister and a delegate who joined theContinental Congress just days before theDeclaration was debated. His moral philosophy was based on the work of the Scottish philosopherFrancis Hutcheson, who also influenced John Adams.[34] When President Witherspoon arrived at the College of New Jersey in 1768, he expanded its natural philosophy offerings, purged the Berkeley adherents from the faculty, includingJonathan Edwards Jr., and taught his own Hutcheson-influenced form of Scottish innate sense moral philosophy.[35] Some revisionist commentators, including Garry Wills'Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, claimed in the 1970s that this imported Scottish philosophy was the basis for the founding documents of America.[36][37][38] However, other historians have questioned this assertion. Ronald Hamowy published a critique of Garry Wills'sInventing America,[39] concluding that "the moment [Wills's] statements are subjected to scrutiny, they appear a mass of confusions, uneducated guesses, and blatant errors of fact."[40] Another investigation of all of the contributors to theUnited States Declaration of Independence suggests that only Jonathan Witherspoon and John Adams embraced the imported Scottish morality.[41] While Scottish innate sense realism would in the decades after the Revolution become the dominant moral philosophy in classrooms of American academia for almost 100 years,[42] it was not a strong influence at the time of theDeclaration was crafted.[43] Johnson's American Practical Idealism and Edwards' Reform Puritan Calvinism were far stronger influences on the men of the Continental Congress and on theDeclaration.[44]
Thomas Paine, the Englishintellectual,pamphleteer, andrevolutionary who wroteCommon Sense andRights of Man was an influential promoter of Enlightenment political ideas in America, though he was not a philosopher.Common Sense, which has been described as "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era",[45] provides justification for the American revolution and independence from the British Crown. Though popular in 1776, historianPauline Maier cautions that, "Paine's influence was more modest than he claimed and than his more enthusiastic admirers assume."[46]
In summary, "in the middle eighteenth century," it was "the collegians who studied" the ideas of the new learning and moral philosophy taught in the Colonial colleges who "created new documents of American nationhood."[47] It was the generation of "Founding Grandfathers", men such as President Samuel Johnson, President Jonathan Edwards, President Thomas Clap, Benjamin Franklin, and Provost William Smith, who "first created the idealistic moral philosophy of 'the pursuit of Happiness', and then taught it in American colleges to the generation of men who would become the Founding Fathers."[48]
The 19th century saw the rise ofRomanticism in America. The American incarnation of Romanticism wastranscendentalism and it stands as a major American innovation. The 19th century also saw the rise of the school of pragmatism, along with a smaller,Hegelian philosophical movement led byGeorge Holmes Howison that was focused inSt. Louis, though the influence of American pragmatism far outstripped that of the small Hegelian movement.[1]
Other reactions to materialism included the "Objective idealism" ofJosiah Royce, and the "Personalism," sometimes called "Boston personalism," ofBorden Parker Bowne.
Transcendentalism in the United States was marked by an emphasis on subjective experience, and can be viewed as a reaction againstmodernism andintellectualism in general and the mechanistic,reductionistic worldview in particular. Transcendentalism is marked by theholistic belief in an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical, and this perfect state can only be attained by one's own intuition and personal reflection, as opposed to either industrial progress and scientific advancement or the principles and prescriptions of traditional, organized religion. The most notable transcendentalist writers includeRalph Waldo Emerson,Henry David Thoreau, andMargaret Fuller.[49][50]
The transcendentalist writers all desired a deep return tonature, and believed that real, true knowledge is intuitive and personal and arises out of personal immersion and reflection in nature, as opposed to scientific knowledge that is the result ofempirical sense experience.[51] Influenced by Emerson and the importance of nature,Charles Stearns Wheeler built a shanty at Flint's Pond in 1836. Considered the first Transcendentalist outdoor living experiment, Wheeler used his shanty during his summer vacations from Harvard from 1836 to 1842. Thoreau stayed at Wheeler's shanty for six weeks during the summer of 1837, and got the idea that he wanted to build his own cabin (later realized at Walden in 1845).[52]
Things such as scientific tools, political institutions, and the conventional rules of morality as dictated by traditional religion need to be transcended. This is found inHenry David Thoreau's 1854 bookWalden; or, Life in the Woods where transcendence is achieved through immersion in nature and the distancing of oneself from society.
The release ofCharles Darwin'sevolutionary theory in his 1859 publication ofOn the Origin of Species had a strong impact on American philosophy.John Fiske andChauncey Wright both wrote about and argued for the re-conceiving of philosophy through an evolutionary lens. They both wanted to understandmorality and themind in Darwinian terms, setting a precedent forevolutionary psychology andevolutionary ethics.
Darwin's biological theory was also integrated into the social and political philosophies ofEnglish thinkerHerbert Spencer and American philosopherWilliam Graham Sumner. Herbert Spencer, who coined the oft-misattributed term "survival of the fittest," believed that societies were in a struggle for survival, and that groups within society are where they are because of some level of fitness. This struggle is beneficial to human kind, as in the long run the weak will be weeded out and only the strong will survive. This position is often referred to asSocial Darwinism, though it is distinct from theeugenics movements with which social darwinism is often associated. Thelaissez-faire beliefs of Sumner and Spencer do not advocate coercive breeding to achieve a planned outcome.
Sumner, much influenced by Spencer, believed along with the industrialistAndrew Carnegie that the social implication of the fact of the struggle for survival is that laissez-faire capitalism is the natural political-economic system and is the one that will lead to the greatest amount of well-being. William Sumner, in addition to his advocacy of free markets, also espousedanti-imperialism (having been credited with coining the term "ethnocentrism"), and advocated for thegold standard.
The most influential school of thought that is uniquely American ispragmatism. It began in the late nineteenth century in the United States withCharles Sanders Peirce,William James, andJohn Dewey. Pragmatism begins with the idea that belief is that upon which one is willing to act. It holds that a proposition's meaning is the consequent form of conduct or practice that would be implied by accepting the proposition as true.[53]
Polymath,logician, mathematician, philosopher, and scientistCharles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) coined the term "pragmatism" in the 1870s.[54] He was a member ofThe Metaphysical Club, which was a conversational club of intellectuals that also includedChauncey Wright, futureSupreme Court JusticeOliver Wendell Holmes Jr., andWilliam James.[53] In addition to making profound contributions tosemiotics, logic, and mathematics, Peirce wrote what are considered to be the founding documents of pragmatism, "The Fixation of Belief" (1877) and"How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878).
In "The Fixation of Belief" Peirce argues for the superiority of thescientific method in settling belief on theoretical questions. In "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" Peirce argued for pragmatism as summed up in that which he later called thepragmatic maxim: "Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object". Peirce emphasized that a conception is general, such that its meaning is not a set of actual, definite effects themselves. Instead the conception of an object is equated to a conception of that object's effects to a general extent of their conceivable implications for informed practice. Those conceivable practical implications are the conception's meaning.
The maxim is intended to help fruitfully clarify confusions caused, for example, by distinctions that make formal but not practical differences. Traditionally one analyzes an idea into parts (his example: a definition of truth as a sign's correspondence to its object). To that needful but confined step, the maxim adds a further and practice-oriented step (his example: a definition of truth as sufficient investigation's destined end).
It is the heart of his pragmatism as a method of experimentational mentalreflection[55] arriving at conceptions in terms of conceivable confirmatory and disconfirmatory circumstances—a method hospitable to the formation of explanatory hypotheses, and conducive to the use and improvement of verification.[56] Typical of Peirce is his concern with inference to explanatory hypotheses as outside the usual foundational alternative between deductivist rationalism and inductivist empiricism, though he himself was amathematician of logic and afounder of statistics.
Peirce's philosophy includes a pervasivethree-category system, bothfallibilism andanti-skeptical belief that truth is discoverable and immutable,logic as formal semiotic (includingsemiotic elements and classes of signs,modes of inference, andmethods of inquiry along with pragmatism andcritical common-sensism),Scholastic realism,theism,objective idealism, and belief in the realityof continuity of space, time, and law, and in the realityof absolute chance, mechanical necessity, andcreative love as principles operative in the cosmos and as modes of its evolution.
William James (1842–1910) was "an original thinker in and between the disciplines of physiology, psychology and philosophy."[57] He is famous as the author ofThe Varieties of Religious Experience, his monumental tomeThe Principles of Psychology, and his lecture "The Will to Believe."
James, along with Peirce,[58] saw pragmatism as embodying familiar attitudes elaborated into a radical new philosophical method of clarifying ideas and thereby resolving dilemmas. In his 1910Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, James paraphrased Peirce's pragmatic maxim as follows:
[T]he tangible fact at the root of all our thought-distinctions, however subtle, is that there is no one of them so fine as to consist in anything but a possible difference of practice. To attain perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what conceivable effects of a practical kind the object may involve — what sensations we are to expect from it, and what reactions we must prepare.
He then went on to characterize pragmatism as promoting not only a method of clarifying ideas but also as endorsing a particular theory of truth. Peirce rejected this latter move by James, preferring to describe the pragmatic maxim only as a maxim of logic and pragmatism as a methodological stance, explicitly denying that it was a substantive doctrine or theory about anything, truth or otherwise.[59]
James is also known for hisradical empiricism which holds that relations between objects are as real as the objects themselves. James was also a pluralist in that he believed that there may actually be multiple correct accounts of truth. He rejected thecorrespondence theory of truth and instead held that truth involves a belief, facts about the world, other background beliefs, and future consequences of those beliefs. Later in his life James would also come to adoptneutral monism, the view that the ultimatereality is of one kind, and is neithermental norphysical.[60]
John Dewey (1859–1952), while still engaging in the lofty academic philosophical work of James and Peirce before him, also wrote extensively on political and social matters, and his presence in the public sphere was much greater than his pragmatist predecessors. In addition to being one of the founding members of pragmatism, John Dewey was one of the founders offunctional psychology and was a leading figure of theprogressive movement in U.S. schooling during the first half of the 20th century.[61]
Dewey argued against the individualism of classical liberalism, asserting that social institutions are not "means for obtaining something for individuals. They are means for creating individuals."[62] He held that individuals are not things that should be accommodated by social institutions, instead, social institutions are prior to and shape the individuals. These social arrangements are a means of creating individuals and promoting individual freedom.
Dewey is well known for his work in theapplied philosophy of thephilosophy of education. Dewey's philosophy of education is one where children learn by doing. Dewey believed that schooling was unnecessarily long and formal, and that children would be better suited to learn by engaging in real-life activities. For example, in math, students could learn by figuring out proportions in cooking or seeing how long it would take to travel distances with certain modes of transportation.[63]
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), trained as a historian and sociologist, and described as a pragmatist like his professorWilliam James, pioneered a shift in philosophy away from abstraction and toward engaged social criticism.[64] His contributions in philosophy, like his efforts in other fields, worked toward the goal of equality of colored people.[64] InThe Souls of Black Folk, he introduced the concept ofdouble consciousness—the dual self-perception ofAfrican-Americans both through the lens of a racially prejudiced society and as they see themselves for themselves, with their own legitimate feelings and traditions—and inDarkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, he introduced the concept ofsecond sight—that this double consciousness of existing both inside the white world and outside of it provides a unique epistemological perspective from which to understand that society.[64]
Pragmatism, which began in the 19th century in America, by the beginning of the 20th century began to be accompanied by other philosophical schools of thought, and was eventually eclipsed by them, though only temporarily. The 20th century saw the emergence of process philosophy, itself influenced by the scientific world-view andAlbert Einstein'stheory of relativity. The middle of the 20th century was witness to the increase in popularity of thephilosophy of language and analytic philosophy in America.Existentialism andphenomenology, while very popular in Europe in the 20th century, never achieved the level of popularity in America as they did in continental Europe.[1]
Pragmatism continued its influence into the 20th century, and Spanish-born philosopherGeorge Santayana was one of the leading proponents of pragmatism and realism in this period. He held thatidealism was an outright contradiction and rejection ofcommon sense. He held that, if something must be certain in order to be knowledge, then it seems no knowledge may be possible, and the result will beskepticism. According to Santayana, knowledge involved a sort of faith, which he termed "animal faith".
In his bookScepticism and Animal Faith he asserts that knowledge is not the result of reasoning. Instead, knowledge is what is required in order to act and successfully engage with the world.[65] As a naturalist, Santayana was a harsh critic ofepistemological foundationalism. The explanation of events in the natural world is within the realm of science, while the meaning and value of this action should be studied by philosophers. Santayana was accompanied in the intellectual climate of 'common sense' philosophy by the thinkers of theNew Realism movement,[66] such asRalph Barton Perry, who criticized idealism as exhibiting what he called theegocentric predicament.[67]
Santayana was at one point aligned with early 20th-century American proponents ofcritical realism—such asRoy Wood Sellars—who were also critics of idealism,[68] but Sellars later concluded that Santayana andCharles Augustus Strong were closer to New Realism in their emphasis on veridical perception, whereas Sellars andArthur O. Lovejoy andJames Bissett Pratt were more properly counted among the critical realists who emphasized "the distinction between intuition and denotative characterization".[66]
Process philosophy embraces the Einsteinian world-view, and its main proponents includeAlfred North Whitehead andCharles Hartshorne. The core belief of process philosophy is the claim that events and processes are the principalontological categories.[69] Whitehead asserted in his bookThe Concept of Nature that the things in nature, what he referred to as "concresences" are a conjunction of events that maintain a permanence of character. Process philosophy isHeraclitan in the sense that a fundamental ontological category is change.[70] Charles Hartshorne was also responsible for developing the process philosophy of Whitehead intoprocess theology.
The University of Chicago became a center ofAristotelian philosophy after presidentMaynard Hutchins reformed the curriculum according to recommendations by philosopherMortimer Adler. Adler also influencedSister Miriam Joseph to teach her college students the medievalTrivium of liberal arts. Adler served as chief editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and later founded theAspen Institute to teach business executives.Richard McKeon also taught Aristotle during the Hutchins era.[citation needed]
Many American philosophers contributed to acontemporary "aretaic turn" toward virtue ethics in moral philosophy.
Ayn Rand, who claimed Aristotle as her primary philosophical influence, promotedethical egoism (the praxis of the belief system she calledObjectivism) in her novelsThe Fountainhead (1943) andAtlas Shrugged (1957). These two novels gave birth to theObjectivist movement and would influence a small group of students called The Collective, one of whom was a youngAlan Greenspan, a self-described libertarian who would becomeChairman of the Federal Reserve.[71] Objectivism holds that there is an objective external reality that can be known with reason, that human beings should act in accordance with their own rational self-interest, and that the proper form of economic organization islaissez-faire capitalism.[72] Some academic philosophers have been highly critical of the quality and intellectual rigor of Rand's work,[73][74] but she remains a popular, albeit controversial, figure within American culture.[75][76]
The middle of the 20th century was the beginning of the dominance ofanalytic philosophy in America. Analytic philosophy, prior to its arrival in America, had begun in Europe with the work ofGottlob Frege,Bertrand Russell,G.E. Moore,Ludwig Wittgenstein, and thelogical positivists. According to logical positivism, the truths of logic and mathematics aretautologies, and those of science are empirically verifiable.[citation needed] Any other claim, including the claims of ethics, aesthetics, theology, metaphysics, and ontology, are meaningless (this theory is calledverificationism). With the rise ofAdolf Hitler and theNazi Party, many positivists fled Germany to Britain and America, and this helped reinforce the dominance of analytic philosophy in the United States in subsequent years.[1]
W.V.O. Quine, while not a logical positivist, shared their view that philosophy should stand shoulder to shoulder with science in its pursuit of intellectual clarity and understanding of the world. He criticized the logical positivists and theanalytic/synthetic distinction of knowledge in his 1951 essay "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" and advocated for his "web of belief," which is acoherentist theory of justification. In Quine's epistemology, since no experiences occur in isolation, there is actually a holistic approach to knowledge where every belief or experience is intertwined with the whole. Quine is also famous for inventing the term "gavagai" as part of his theory of theindeterminacy of translation.[77]
Saul Kripke, a student of Quine's atHarvard, has profoundly influenced analytic philosophy. Kripke was ranked among the top ten most important philosophers of the past 200 years in a poll conducted byBrian Leiter (Leiter Reports: a Philosophy Blog;open access poll)[78] Kripke is best known for four contributions to philosophy: (1)Kripke semantics formodal and related logics, published in several essays beginning while he was still in his teens. (2) His 1970 Princeton lecturesNaming and Necessity (published in 1972 and 1980), that significantly restructured thephilosophy of language and, as some have put it, "made metaphysics respectable again". (3) His interpretation of the philosophy ofWittgenstein.[79] (4) His theory oftruth. He has also made important contributions toset theory (seeadmissible ordinal andKripke–Platek set theory)
David Kellogg Lewis, another student of Quine atHarvard, was ranked as one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century in a poll conducted byBrian Leiter (open access poll).[80] He is well known for his controversial advocacy ofmodal realism, the position which holds that there is an infinite number of concrete and causally isolatedpossible worlds, of which ours is one.[81] These possible worlds arise in the field ofmodal logic.
Thomas Kuhn was an important philosopher and writer who worked extensively in the fields of thehistory of science and thephilosophy of science. He is famous for writingThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions, one of the most cited academic works of all time. The book argues that science proceeds through differentparadigms as scientists find new puzzles to solve. There follows a widespread struggle to find answers to questions, and a shift in world views occurs, which is referred to by Kuhn as aparadigm shift.[82] The work is considered a milestone in thesociology of knowledge.
Critical theory—specifically thesocial theory of theFrankfurt School—influenced philosophy and culture in the United States beginning in the late 1960s.[83] Critical theory was rooted in the Western EuropeanMarxist philosophical tradition and sought philosophy that was "practical" and not merely "theoretical", that would help not only to understand the world but to shape it—generally toward human emancipation and freedom from domination.[84] Its practical and socially transformative orientation was similar to that of earlier American pragmatists such as John Dewey.[84]
Critical theoristHerbert Marcuse, in hisEros and Civilization (1955), responded to the pessimism ofSigmund Freud'sCivilization and Its Discontents by arguing for the emancipatory power of the imagination and for a "rationality of gratification", a fusion ofLogos andEros, for envisioning a better world.[85] InOne-Dimensional Man (1964), Marcuse argued for a "Great Refusal"—"the protest against that which is", in response to "un-freedoms" and oppressive, conformist social structures.[85][86] According to Marcuse's studentAngela Davis, Marcuse'sprincipled utopianism articulated the ideals of a generation of activists and revolutionaries around the world.[86][87] His thought influenced theNew Left,[88] notably by theBlack power movement[89] andstudent movements of the 1960s.[90] He "was the most influential of the Frankfurt School critical theorists on North American intellectual culture" according to Doug Mann.[91]
American philosophers and writers who have engaged with critical theory include Angela Davis,[92]Edward Said,[93]Martha Nussbaum,[94]bell hooks,[95]Cornel West,[96] andJudith Butler.[97][98] Butler portrays critical theory as a way to rhetorically challenge oppression and inequality, specifically concepts of gender.[97]
In 1971John Rawls publishedA Theory of Justice, which puts forth his view ofjustice as fairness, a version ofsocial contract theory. Rawls employs a conceptual mechanism called theveil of ignorance to outline his idea of theoriginal position.[99] In Rawls' philosophy, the original position is the correlate to theHobbesianstate of nature. While in the original position, persons are said to be behind the veil of ignorance, which makes these persons unaware of their individual characteristics and their place in society, such as their race, religion, wealth, etc. The principles of justice are chosen by rational persons while in this original position. The two principles of justice are the equal liberty principle and the principle that governs the distribution of social and economic inequalities. From this, Rawls argues for a system ofdistributive justice in accordance with the Difference Principle, which says that all social and economic inequalities must be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged.[100]
Viewing Rawls as promoting excessive government control and rights violations,libertarianRobert Nozick publishedAnarchy, State, and Utopia in 1974. The book advocates for aminimal state and defends the liberty of the individual. He argues that the role of government should be limited to "police protection, national defense, and the administration of courts of law, with all other tasks commonly performed by modern governments – education, social insurance, welfare, and so forth – taken over by religious bodies, charities, and other private institutions operating in a free market."[101]
Nozick asserts his view of theentitlement theory of justice, which says that if everyone in society has acquired his or her holdings in accordance with the principles of acquisition, transfer, and rectification, then any pattern of allocation, no matter how unequal the distribution may be, is just. The entitlement theory of justice holds that the "justice of a distribution is indeed determined by certain historical circumstances (contrary to end-state theories), but it has nothing to do with fitting any pattern guaranteeing that those who worked the hardest or are most deserving have the most shares."[102]
Alasdair MacIntyre, born and educated in theUnited Kingdom, spent around forty years living and working in the United States. He was responsible for the resurgence of interest invirtue ethics, amoral theory first propounded by the ancientGreek philosopherAristotle.[103][104] A prominentThomist political philosopher, he held that "modern philosophy and modern life are characterized by the absence of any coherent moral code, and that the vast majority of individuals living in this world lack a meaningful sense of purpose in their lives and also lack any genuine community".[105] He recommended returning to genuine political communities where individuals can properly acquire their virtues.
Outsideacademic philosophy, political and social concerns took center stage with theCivil Rights Movement and the writings ofMartin Luther King Jr. King was an American Christian minister and activist known for advancing civil rights throughnonviolence andcivil disobedience.
While there were earlier writers who would be considered feminist, such asSarah Grimké,Charlotte Perkins Gilman,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, andAnne Hutchinson, the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, also known assecond-wave feminism, is notable for its impact in philosophy.[108]
The popular mind was taken withBetty Friedan'sThe Feminine Mystique (1963). This was accompanied by other feminist philosophers, such asAlicia Ostriker andAdrienne Rich. These philosophers critiqued basic assumptions and values like objectivity and what they believe to be masculine approaches to ethics, such as rights-based political theories. They maintained there is no such thing as a value-neutral inquiry and they sought to analyze the social dimensions of philosophical issues.
Judith Butler'sGender Trouble (1990), which argued for an understanding ofgender associally constructed and performative, helped establish the academic field ofgender studies.[109]
Towards the end of the 20th century, there was a resurgence of interest in pragmatism. Largely responsible for this areHilary Putnam andRichard Rorty. Rorty is famous as the author ofPhilosophy and the Mirror of Nature andPhilosophy and Social Hope. Hilary Putnam is well known for hisquasi-empiricism in mathematics,[110] his challenge of thebrain in a vatthought experiment,[111] and his other work inphilosophy of mind,philosophy of language, andphilosophy of science.
The debates that occur within thephilosophy of mind have taken center stage. Austrian émigréHerbert Feigl published a summary of the debates, "The 'Mental' and the 'Physical'", in 1958 (with a postscript in 1967).[112] Later, American philosophers such as Hilary Putnam,Donald Davidson,[113]Daniel Dennett,[114]Douglas Hofstadter,[115]John Searle,[116] as well asPatricia andPaul Churchland[117] continued the discussion of such issues as the nature ofmind and thehard problem of consciousness, a philosophical problem named by the Australian philosopherDavid Chalmers.[118]
Several mid-20th century American scholars renewed the study ofidealism to emphasize the role of mind in nature, often with insights from analytic philosophy.[119] The American philosopherNicholas Rescher includes himself and his University of Pittsburgh colleaguesJohn McDowell andRobert Brandom within a group ofpost-Hegelian "neo-idealists".[119] In hisMind and World (1994), McDowell embraced an intricate form of "mitigated naturalism" derived from Kant's distinction between spontaneity and receptivity, while also circumventing the two extremes of "rampant Platonism" and "bald naturalism".[119]
In the early 21st century,embodied cognition has gained strength as a theory of mind–body–world integration. Philosophers such asShaun Gallagher andAlva Noë, together with British philosophers such asAndy Clark, defend this view and see it as a natural development ofpragmatism and of the thinking ofKant,Heidegger andMerleau-Ponty among others.[120]
Noted American legal philosophersRonald Dworkin andRichard Posner work in the fields of political philosophy andjurisprudence. Posner is famous for hiseconomic analysis of law, a theory which uses microeconomics to understand legal rules and institutions.[123] Dworkin is famous for his theory oflaw as integrity andlegal interpretivism, especially as presented in his bookLaw's Empire.[124][125]
PhilosopherCornel West is known for his analysis of American cultural life with regards torace,gender, andclass issues, as well as his associations withpragmatism andtranscendentalism.
Alvin Plantinga is aChristian analytic philosopher known for hisfree will defense with respect to thelogical problem of evil, theevolutionary argument against naturalism, the position that belief in the existence of God isproperly basic, and hismodal version of theontological argument for the existence of God.Michael C. Rea has developed Plantinga's thought by claiming that both naturalism and supernaturalism are research programmes that have to be adopted as a basis for research.[126]
Other contemporary American scholars have renewed an interest inJohn Dewey's formulation ofpragmatic ethics in order to explore themoral imperatives which justify an adherence to the practice ofpacifism andnonviolence in the modern world. Specific attention is given to the ethical limitations and contradictions inherent in traditionaljust war theories when applied to modern forms of warfare includingnuclear war and moderndeterrence theory. Noteworthy in this group areRobert L. Holmes,[127][128][129][130]Duane Cady[131][132] andBarry L. Gan.[133]
In the realm ofnormative ethics andepistemology, some 20th century American scholars also contributed to a renewed interest in the works ofImmanuel Kant by establishing close research relationships between leading Kantian scholars within Germany and their counterparts within the United States. In the course of publishing precise translations and detailed scholarly commentary, these philosophers resolved several of the linguistic ambiguities within Kant's work which had perplexed both scholars and students alike. Particular attention was given to Kant's exposition on theanalytic-synthetic distinction and his description of the syntheticapriori formulation. The efforts ofLewis White Beck were particularly noteworthy.[134][135][136]
In addition, other American scholars made important contributions during this time to the study of thephilosophy of language.George Philip Lakoff andMark L. Johnson presented insights in the field ofcognitive linguistics by exploring the manner in whichconceptual metaphors influence the process ofunderstanding and the conveyance of "meaning" in general.[137][138] Similarly,Colin Murray Turbayne raised awareness of the manner in which ancientdead metaphors continue to influence the evolution of modern scholarly analysis in thephilosophy of science.[139][140][141]Kendall Walton expounded upon conceptual metaphors even further by formulating a more generalized "make-believe" theory of representation within the field ofontology.[142][143][144][145]
A renewed interest in the utilization of the ancient concept of philosophicalwisdom to resolve contemporary problems in the realms of bothethics andmetaphysics also emerged during this century among several philosophers in America. By pointing toward the significant role played by the virtues ofcompassion,empathy andunderstanding in the philosophical teachings of ancient Greece, these scholars argued that while the utilization of rational thought may in practice benecessary to formulate such solutions, it is also, by its very nature, notsufficient when utilized by itself. Included in this group areMartha Nussbaum[146] andRichard Clyde Taylor.[147][148][149]
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Though many people, communities and nations populated the area that is now the United States long before the U.S.A. became a nation-state, and they all wrestled with universal philosophical questions such as the nature of the self, the relationships between persons, their origins and destiny, most histories of American Philosophy begin with European colonization, especially from the time of the Puritans in New England. From the "Mayflower Compact," penned in 1620 as the early English settlers arrived in the New World, basic socio-political positions were made explicit and fundamental to newly established communities.
Perry criticized subjective idealism as being subject to but misunderstanding the 'egocentric predicament' ... Perry further maintained that all forms of idealism involve the egocentric predicament.
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