Books in the American Philosophy series

The work of Charles S. Peirce has forced us back to philosophical reflection about those basic issues that confront us as human beings. Here, Father Potter argues that Peirce's doctrine of normative sciences is essential to his pragmatism, showing him as a cosmological and ontological thinker.

This collection focuses primarily on Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism.

What could it mean to speak of philosophy as ¿the education of grownups¿? This book takes Stanley Cavell¿s much-quoted, yet enigmatic phrase as the provocation for a series of explorations into themes of education that run throughout his work ¿ through his response to Wittgenstein, Austin and ordinary language philosophy, through his readings of Thoreau and of the moral perfectionism he identifies with Emerson, through his discussions of literature and film. Hilary Putnam has described Cavell not only as one of the most creative thinkers of today but as amongst the few contemporary philosophers to explore the territory of philosophy as education. Yet in mainstream philosophy his work is apt to be referred to rather than engaged with, and the full import of his writings for education is still to be appreciated. Cavell engages in a sustained exploration of the nature of philosophy, and this is not separable from his preoccupation with what it is to teach and to learn, with the kinds of transformation these might imply, and with the significance of these things for our language and politics, for our lives as a whole.In recent years Cavell¿s work has been the subject of a number of books of essays, but this is the first to address directly the importance of education in his work. Such matters cannot fail to be of significance not only for the disciplinary fields of philosophy and education, but in politics, literature, and film studies ¿ and in the humanities as a whole. A substantial introduction provides an overview of the philosophical purchase of questions of education in his work, while the essays are framed by two new pieces by Cavell himself. The book shows what it means to read Cavell, and simultaneously what it means to read philosophically, in itself a part of our education as grownups.

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Royce'sthought, providing the most comprehensive selection ofhis writings currently available.

Traces the concept of the imagination through German idealism of the 18th century, the American philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, and the findings of contemporary cognitive neuroscience in order to argue for the centrality of aesthetics in human cognition.

Places Levinas in the context of American philosophy

Susanne Langer (1895-1985) was one of American philosophy's most distinctive thinkers. This book shows how Langer's thought spans the sciences, aesthetics, psychology, religion, education, and music, and where it touches on concerns that were brought forward by American pragmatists, such as John Dewey and William James.

John Dewey, widely known as "America's philosopher," surprisingly never set down a complete moral or ethical philosophy. Showing that Dewey's ethics are compatible with the rest of his philosophy, this work corrects the reputation of American pragmatism as a philosophy committed to skepticism and relativism.

Although Josiah Royce was one of the towering figures of American pragmatism, his thought is often considered in the wake of his more famous peers. This book offers a philosophical exploration of Royce's ideas on conflict resolution, memory, self-identity, and self-development.

Deals with the place of the individual and community in democratic society. Mapping out a brief history of American legal thinking regarding rights, from communitarianism to liberalism, this book gives an account of how pragmatism worked to resolve conflicts of self-interest and community well-being.

A provocative interpretation of James and an open-ended claim for a religious view that does not fly in the face of what we know about ourselves and our world. Recommended.-Choice