William James and the Moral Life: Responsible Self-fashioning

157 Pages·2022·17.616 MB·English

by  Todd Lekan

William James and the Moral Life
ThisbookoffersacompellingnewinterpretationofJames’moralphilosophy:
an “ethics of responsible self-fashioning.” James’ performative writing style
articulates this conception by showing how moral inquiry serves both social
andpersonaltransformation.
James the social moral philosopher seeks to create an inclusive moral order
through expansion of sympathetic concern among those committed to
different ideals. James the existential moral philosopher defends the right
to adopt hope-grounding metaphysical beliefs which encourage strenuous
moral action in the face of evil and suffering. The power of James’ ethics
is demonstrated by its application to current discussions about the status
of marginalized nonhuman animals and that of the cognitively disabled.
William James and the Moral Life is of interest to a wide variety of
ethicists and has special appeal to scholars and advanced students in moral
philosophy, social philosophy, pragmatism, and American philosophy.
ToddLekanisAssociateDeanandProfessorof Philosophyatthe University
of South Carolina Lancaster, USA.
Routledge Studies in American Philosophy
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Jackman, York University, Canada
Pragmatism and Social Philosophy
Exploring a Stream of Ideas from America to Europe
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C. I. Lewis
The A Priori and the Given
Edited by Quentin Kammer, Jean-Philippe Narboux, and Henri Wagner
Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics and the Normative Sciences
James Jakób Liszka
The Ethics, Epistemology, and Politics of Richard Rorty
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Intentionality in Sellars
A Transcendental Account of Finite Knowledge
Luz Christopher Seiberth
Disability and American Philosophies
Edited by Nate Whelan-Jackson and Daniel J. Brunson
William James and the Moral Life
Responsible Self-Fashioning
Todd Lekan
The Ethics of Richard Rorty
Moral Communities, Self-Transformation, and Imagination
Edited by Susan Dieleman, David E. McClean, and Paul Showler
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Studies-in-American-Philosophy/book-series/RSAP
William James and the
Moral Life
Responsible Self-Fashioning
Todd Lekan
Firstpublished2022
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Lekan,Todd,1967-author.
Title:WilliamJamesandthemorallife:responsibleself-fashioning/
ToddLekan.
Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2022.|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2021052357(print)|LCCN2021052358(ebook)|
ISBN9781032221649(hardback)|ISBN9781032226460(paperback)|
ISBN9781003273523(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:James,William,1842-1910.|Ethics.|Conductoflife.|
Pragmatism.|Philosophy,American.
Classification:LCCB945.J24L4352022(print)|LCCB945.J24(ebook)|
DDC191--dc23/eng/20220110
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021052357
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021052358
ISBN:978-1-032-22164-9(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-032-22646-0(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-27352-3(ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9781003273523
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Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: Why William James and Ethics? 1
1 Pragmatist Moral Philosophy and Moral Life: Embracing the
Tensions 9
2 Ideals and Significant Lives 36
3 The Sources of Moral Agency 57
4 Existential Deliberation 78
5 Moving Marginal Subjects Into Focus 115
Conclusion 134
References 140
Index 145
Acknowledgments
This book has been a long time in the making. I recall floating the idea to
Michael Eldridge in a hotel hallway at the meeting of the American Philo-
sophical Association in December 2008. While Mike was a Deweyan, I
would like to think that he would appreciate my approach to James’ ethics,
were he still with us.
Many conversation partners and critical interlocuters have helped shaped
my understanding of James’ thought and pragmatist ethics during my work
on this project. With apologies to those who I may have left out, I want to
thank Scott Aikin, James Campbell, Steven Fesmire, Kim Garcher, Jim
Garrison,Micah Hester,DavidHildebrand, HenryJackman,HeatherKeith,
Sarin Marchetti, Mark Moller, Megan Mustain, Gregory Pappas, James
Pawelski, Stuart Rosenbaum, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, and Robert
Talisse. I owe a special thanks to Joe Palencik for detailed feedback during
the early stages of this project. Some of the ideas in Chapter 3 are the result
of an unpublished paper that I cowrote with him. I thank Andrew Weck-
enmann, Allie Simmons, Jenny Guildford, and Neil Dowden of Routledge
for their stellar work during the publication process. At every stage they
were professional, responsive, and kind.
Several institutions and organizations deserve mention. Muskingum Uni-
versity granted mesabbatical leaves in 2009 and 2019 which werecrucial for
my work on this book. I am grateful to Dean Walt Collins of the University
of South Carolina Lancaster for his support of my scholarship. I have
benefited much from the meetings and publications of the William James
Society. Some of the ideas in this book were tested in presentations at
meetings of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. For
its convivial community, I am most grateful.
Chapter 2 appeared as “The marriage of ideals and strenuous actions:
exploring William James’ account of significant life” in Transactions of the
Charles. S. Peirce Society, 52 (4), Summer 2016, 576–597. A portion of
Chapter 3 appeared as “Who are moral philosophers? Ethics William James
style,” The Pluralist, 13 (1), 2018, 81–96. I thank the editors of these jour-
nals for permission to use this work.
Acknowledgments ix
Portions of Chapter 1 are drawn from the chapter “Pragmatist moral
philosophy and moral life: embracing the tensions,” ed. S. Marchetti, The
Jamesian mind, Routledge, 2022. Portions of Chapter 5 are drawn from the
chapter “Just like ananimal: Cognitivelydisabled humans and the argument
from marginal cases,” ed. N. Jackson and D. Brunson, Disabilities and
American philosophies, Routledge, 2022.
Finally, I offer loving gratitude to my life partner Meghan Wynne whose
creative writing practice inspires me, and for so much more that defies my
powers of expression.