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Book
Review |
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| Philosophy
Americana: Making Philosophy at Home in American Culture. By Douglas
R. Anderson. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006. Pp. xi, 294. $24
(paper) |
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Philosophy Americana is written and organized
in the American tradition of essays, talks and lectures collected into a
single volume. As such, the collection has not a main argument so much as
a generic, organizing theme that loosely unifies the various essays. That
theme is the ongoing, forever intriguing relationship between American philosophy
and other aspects or features of American culture, including music, literature,
religion, politics and pop culture. For Anderson such cultural expressions
both instruct and inform American philosophy and vice versa. In effect,
this book asks, in a variety of ways and settings, what it means to be thinking
and doing philosophy in the United States given its unique history and cultural
influences.
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Anderson establishes a baseline for Philosophy
Americana, to be found in the maintenance (for each of us) of our own
experiential home while opening ourselves to "others"—other perspectives,
languages, ethnicities and gender. In other words, how can each of us build
out from our experiential base to become truly inclusive, not exclusive?
As John J. McDermott would have it, how can American philosophy and philosophers
approach the fundamental task of "humanizing" our experience, our world?
Anderson makes clear that in addressing these fundamental challenges, the
objective is to somehow, imaginatively keep philosophy (in America) alive
beyond the limitations of its increasingly invisible academic setting.
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The alignment of the essays in this volume reveal
bookends—the first and last essays dealing with features of pragmatism
in its origins as well as future import and possibilities. In between are
pieces that elaborate on philosophical experience in relation to wilderness;
practical wisdom and political action; religiosity; philosophy and teaching;
and American philosophy's engagement with American music and literature.
Each of these encounters highlights in its own way our "experience of risk,
loss, possibility, failure and hope" (x). Anderson concedes that he has
not made up his mind fully of any of these issues and that in this book
he simply tells the reader what he thinks for now. Of one fundamental assumption,
however, he is certain—"Philosophy cannot be effective if it merely
tries to oversee culture. At some point it must come to close quarters with
the other dimensions of culture if it hopes to become visible and to make
any difference at all. "(18).
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The essays here collected have numerous antecedents
both historical and contemporary. Anderson identifies his debt to early
exemplars of Philosophy Americana such as Emerson, Fuller and Thoreau.
William James, Thomas Davidson and John Dewey play important roles. More
recent influential philosophers include Henry Bugbee and John Anderson.
A host of contemporary writers and musicians have their impact—from
Annie Dillard to Robert Pirsig, Jack Kerouac to Bruce Springsteen. Leading
contemporary practitioners of American philosophy include John E. Smith,
Bruce Wilshire, Crispin Sartwell, and perhaps, more than anyone, John J.
McDermott who, according to Anderson, epitomizes the passion for philosophical
enquiry with no loss of intellectual integrity and with the "finest attention
to the thickness of experience" (xi). |
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Students and scholars of William James will find
some engaging chapters, references and connections to James in this volume.
Examples include the evocation of James in a chapter ("'Born to Run': Male
Mysticism on the Road") that includes an interpretation of Springsteen's
legendary anthem. Readers of Stanley Cavell will be stimulated by a chapter
("American Loss in Cavell's Emerson") in which Anderson makes the strong
claim that Cavell regrettably overlooks or dismisses James and Dewey as
important resources for better understanding Emerson. Yet another impressive
and beautifully written chapter ("Philosophy as Teaching: James's 'Knight
Errant,' Thomas Davidson") offers a meditation on James's views concerning
the intimate relation between philosophy and teaching. Here Anderson elaborates
on James's attempt to redeem "a knight errant of the intellectual life"
(156)—the itinerant Scot, Thomas Davidson who, as a wandering scholar,
was always essentially a teacher in the Socratic mode. For some readers
the most significant James chapter in this collection will be "William James
and the Wild Beasts of the Philosophical Desert" which provides a spirited
explanation and defense of James's treatment of religion as essential to
human experience, as when he wrote, "… a man's religion is the deepest and
wisest thing in his life." In examining James's "wild beasts"—descriptive
psychology, religion, even psychical experience—Anderson works with
pride to keep James the "unrespectable" philosopher. |
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Philosophy Americana is the fruit of years
of expansive interdisciplinary and cultural enquiry on the variety of ways
American philosophy is a reflection and extension of American history, art,
culture and pedagogy. It's an eminently readable book, conceived and written
with style and intellectual passion. It provides a much-needed, wider context
for better understanding the substance and contributions of American philosophy.
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Richard
E. Hart
Department of Philosophy
Bloomfield College
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