Synopses & Reviews
The American Philosophers contains papers by current leading philosophers and political theorists that explore the work of the major American philosophers from the colonial period to the present, from Jonathan Edwards to David Kaplan.
- Contains a philosophically and historically broad exploration of the major schools of American philosophy
- Examines both the pragmatists and the later Twentieth Century analytic philosophers, as well as such shapers of the political and philosophical American scene as Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Emerson, and Jane Addams
Review
"But in spite of this shortcoming, the editors have succeeded in putting together a very rich and stimulating collection of essays." (British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2010)
Synopsis
This volume features papers by outstanding scholars who are known for the work on specific figures of American Philosophy from the colonial period through the twentieth century.
About the Author
Peter A. French is the Lincoln Chair in Ethics and the Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. Formerly, he held the Cole Chair In Ethics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and served as Exxon Distinguished Research Professor in the Center for the Study of Values at the University of Delaware. He is the author of seventeen books including
Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns;
Corporate Ethics;
Responsibility Matters;
Corporations in the Moral Community;
The Spectrum of Responsibility;
Collective and Corporate Responsibility;
Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Laws;
Ethics in Government; and
The Scope of Morality. His most recent book,
The Virtues of Vengeance, was published in April 2001. He has published dozens of articles in the major philosophical and legal journals and reviews, many of which have been anthologized.
Howard K. Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota-Morris, and has served as visiting professor at the University of Iowa and Stanford University. Wettstein has published articles on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of religion and is the author of The Magic Prism: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (forthcoming), and Has Semantics Rested on a Mistake? And other Essays (1992).
Table of Contents
Learning Is the Handmaid of the Lord: Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), Reason, and the Life of the Mind (Allen C. Guelzo).
George Ripley (1802-1880) and Miracles: External Evidence Versus Internal Conviction (Bruce Silver).
The Radical Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826): An Essay in Retrieval (Richard K. Matthews).
James Madison (1751-1836) (George W. Carey).
Emerson (1803-1882) on the Realization of Freedom (Gustaaf Van Cromphout).
Thoreau’s (1817-1862) Lakes of Light: Modes of Representation and the Enactment of Philosophy in Walden (H. Daniel Peck).
Jane Addams (1860-1935): Patriotism in Time of War (Scott L. Pratt).
The Principle of Pragmatism: Peirce’s (1839-1914) Formulations and Examples (Christopher Hookway).
James (1842-1910) on the Nonconceptual (Russell B. Goodman).
William James (1842-1910) and John Dewey (1859-1952): The Odd Couple (Richard M. Gale).
Experience as Experimental and Reconstructed Realism: An Interwoven Core of Mead’s (1863-1931) Philosophy (Sandra Rosenthal).
The Difference God Makes (Josiah Royce, 1855-1916) (John Lachs).
C. I. Lewis (1883-1964) on the Given and Its Interpretation (Laurence BonJour).
On Quine’s (1908-2000) Rejection of Intensional Entities (Michael Jubien).
Denying a Dualism: Goodman’s (1906-1998) Repudiation of the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction (Catherine Z. Elgin).
Ryleans and Outlookers: Wilfrid Sellars (1912-1989) on "Mental States’ (Jay F. Rosenberg).
Equal Liberty for All? (John Rawls, 1921-2002) (Thomas Pogge).
What Nozick (1938-2002) Did for Decision Theory (David Schmidtz and Sarah Wright).
On Kripke (1940- ) and Statements (G. W. Fitch).
Donald Davidson (1917-2003) (Ernest LePore and Kirk Ludwig).
Freedom to Break the Laws (David Lewis, 1941-2001) (Peter van Inwagen).
Putnam’s (1926- ) Retreat: Some Reflections on Hilary Putnam’s Changing Views about Metaphysical Necessity (Bob Hale).
David Kaplan (1933- ) on De Re Belief (Erin L. Eaker)