American Philosophy and Future - Essays for New Generation

373 Pages·1968·6.778 MB·English

by  Michael Novak

•
•
•
AMERICPAHNI LOSOPHY
AND
THEF UTURE
EssfaoyarNs e wG eneration
Edited by
MICHAELN OVAK
CharSlcersi bSnoen•rsN ' eswY ork
COPYRIGHT@ 1968 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
This book published simultaneously in the
United States of America and in Canada­
Copyright under the Berne Convention
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without the
permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.
A-10.68 [HJ
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-27795
for Ben
who was bitten by the Socratic gnat
long years ago
and has turned to biting others
EDITOR'S NOTE
The good advice and warm enthusiasm of John J.
McDermott were indispensable for the growth of this volume.
The patience of Will Davison of Scribners was discreet, gentle
and calming. Miss Kathleen McHale helped with timely forays
of research; Miss Charlotte Ackerley assisted with the proofs;
and Miss Kathleen Kennedy bore the burden of the typing.
MICHAEL NOVAK
•
•
•
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Philosophy for the New Generation
MICHAEL NOVAK
ONE TO BE HUMAN IS TO HUMANIZE: 21
A Radically Empirical Aesthetic
JOHN J. MCDERMOTT
TWO DREAM AND NIGHTMARE:
60
The Future as Revolution
ROBERT C. POLLOCK
THREE WILLIAM JAMES AND 87
METAPHYSICAL RISK
PAUL M. VAN BUREN
FOUR KNOWING AS A PASSIONATE 107
AND PERSONAL QUEST:
C. S. Peirce
DAVID B. BURRELL
FIVE THE FOX ALONE IS DEATH: 138
Whitehead and Speculative Philosophy
ANDREW J. RECK
ix
CONTENTS
SIX A MAN AND A CITY:
173
George Herbert Mead in Chicago
ROBERMT. B ARRY
SEVEN ROYCE:
193
Analyst of Religion as Community
JAMECSO LLINS
EIGHT HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND GOD:
219
Brightman's Personalistic Theism
DANIECLA LLAHAN
NINE WILLIAM JAMES AND
247
THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
JAMEMS. E DIE
TEN PRAGMATISM, RELIGION, AND
270
EXPERIENCEABLE DIFFERENCE
R.W .S LEEPER
ELEVEN HOW IS RELIGIOUS TALK
324
JUSTIFIABLE?
JAMEWSM .M CCLENDOJNR .
INDEX
351
X
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
AND
THE FUTURE
INTRODUCTION:
Philofsootrph Nheey wG eneration
BY MICHAEL NOVAK
We seem to be in need, again, of a revolution in philosophy.
The much heralded "revolution in philosophy" of the early l 930's
is rather tired now: many things in the world around us, and we
ourselves, have changed in the interim. "Who are we? What should
we hope for? What ought we to do?" Kant's famous questions tor­
ment philosophers, at least many younger ones. If the employment
of atomic weapons and worldwide guerrilla warfare overtake us, we
shall not be able to do philosophy. And surely lovers of wisdom
cannot, in sheltered lairs, leave the hard tasks of imagining a new
way of life to some slave class, of technicians for example. Restless­
ness is everywhere stirring among younger people in philosophy.
There is a hesitation, as if before a fruitful, cleansing rain.
Where, then, shall we go? What shall we imagine the task of
philosophy to be? It is the argument of this book that one of the
most overlooked, and yet most fruitful, traditions in our philosoph­
ical history is that of the "golden age" of American philosophy­
the age of Royce and Peirce, of Mead, Dewey, James, Santayana,
and Whitehead. In this American tradition, philosophy was ever to
be renewed at the springs of experience, always to be open to the
future, designed to be at the service of man's humanity. Experi­
mental, imaginative, open, constructive, critical-the model pro­
vided by American philosophy is at once humanistic and revolu­
tionary.
Emerson once said that to be a man is to be a nonconformist.
1
INTRODUCTION
and to be human is to be revolutionary.1 In an age when the selec­
tive service system guides young men into slots predetermined by
national priorities, and when our industrial system railroads the
future of other young people along the iron tracks of technical
specialization, a philosophy of openness and revolution is desper­
ately needed. Such need prompts invention. For even an undirected
technological system is inherently open: fresh alternatives arise at
every stage of development and rapid change, with swift obsoles­
cence, is built into the system. It remains that technology must be
directed. A great cry rises all around us for the defense and exalta­
tion of humanity. "Do not let the future be inhuman!"
That philosophers should analyze verbal puzzles, unpack the
meaning of obscure sentences, and play rewarding language games
is surely a good not to be contemned. Technical skills are to be
esteemed. Clarity is to be prized. But there are also other tasks
which other philosophers would like to undertake, and they find
sustenance in philosophical traditions just beyond the expanding
horizon of the schools of linguistic analysis. It is no doubt true that
almost all philosophers in Western history have been, at least in
part, analysts of language. But they have been other things as well.
And it is those "other things" that now seem to be so much more
instructive. Yet what are those "other things"?
Perhaps the best way to make plain some of the new demands
laid upon the present generation of philosophers is to describe the
new world that technology has created since 1932.
I
In the last forty years, many features in the life of students of
philosophy have been dramatically altered. Wittgenstein taught
them that every language makes sense only within a framework,
and that that framework itself cannot be stated, but may only be
shown. The exigent mind naturally wonders, then, what is our
framework? How does it differ from that of others? Have we any
control over it? It is possible that we are simply stuck with the
language we happen to have; that we are able to renew it only
plank by plank as the ship of Theseus was renewed. On the con­
trary, it may also be that swift breakthroughs and slow creative
movements are possible.
2