American Philosophy, Part I: Transcendentalism & Pragmatism

American Philosophy, Part I: Transcendentalism & Pragmatism

Some important developments/periods:

Romanticism (~1800-1850) Industrial Revolution (~1760-1840)

Transcendentalism

Kant's Transcendental Idealism vs. Transcendentalism

The transcendental, for Kant, was his qualified use of the term to denote those aspects of our mind which bring into our experience a prioi intuitions of space and time, and the a priori concept of substance. Transcendentalism refers to a religious and philosophical movement within America which has largely to do with understanding one's role in nature, emphasizing spiritual experience through appreciating nature and emotions

Ralph Waldo Emerson

82

1803-

Critical of Organized Religion Taught Self Reliance small communities > large societies

Nature (essay)
Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of nature, is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit, it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

82

1803-

The Over-Soul

(1) soul is immortal, vast, a thing of beauty

(2) ego is inferior and yet treated superior (3) souls are connected indefinitely

(4) God appears to exist within us

The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Oversoul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart.

Henry David Thoreau

1817-62

Anti-intellectualist

Went to Harvard

Anarchist?

"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government" "'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live

deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear, nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms ..."
(Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For")

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the licence of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

(Walden, "Conclusion")

"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

(Walden, "Conclusion")

Influences on Nonviolent Resistance

What happened to Transcendentalism?

Was it a pragmatic turn, or has it simply dissolved into our common aesthetic? Can we think of any similar movements recently?

Another critic of organized religion:

Soren Kierkegaard

Pragmatism

Charles Sanders Peirce

Pragmatism

1839-1914

The opinion that metaphysics is to be largely cleared up by the application of the following maxim for attaining clearness of apprehension: 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.

Charles Sanders Peirce

Pragmatic Maxim

1839-1914

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.

- we always have a context in our statements

i.e. the meaning of a book...

- beliefs are habits of action

- What we call Certainty is impossible...

- We ourselves are inductive entities, and aren't any more or less knowable than the other objects of our acquaintance

William James
1910

1842-

Beliefs are ultimately more fundamental than anything we call knowledge.

Beliefs determine action, not knowledge.

Religion, for example, is true and affects the believer to the extent that it is useful to them (i.e. their spiritual well-being).

"Father of American psychology" - Psychologism?

Like Peirce, he rejected determinism

Potential Issues with Pragmatism

Is pragmatism actually pragmatic? How do we define what is pragmatic? Who would have such authority to define it, if it happens to be relative? What does it mean for something to be useful? Can we divorce the concept between individuals and groups?

What is the essential difference between pragmatism in ethics and a Utilitarian stance?