Pragmatic Fashions , livre ebook

Indiana University Press - John J. Stuhr

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

198 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

John J. Stuhr, a leading voice in American philosophy, sets forth a view of pragmatism as a personal work of art or fashion. Stuhr develops his pragmatism by putting pluralism forward, setting aside absolutism and nihilism, opening new perspectives on democracy, and focusing on love. He creates a space for a philosophy that is liable to failure and that is experimental, pluralist, relativist, radically empirical, radically democratic, and absurd. Full color illustrations enhance this lyrical commitment to a new version of pragmatism.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Expressivism and Pragmatism
1. Chance Vistas and Sincerity in the Cosmic Labyrinth
2. Philosophies as Fashions
3. Does Philosophy Progress?: Criticism without Critique
4. Convergence and Difference: Immanent Pluralism
5. It's All Relative: Beyond Absolutism and Nihilism
6. Expressions of Nature: Refashioning the Hudson River School
7. Old Ideals Crumble: War and the Limits of Philosophy
8. Democracy as Public Experiment: Beyond Mission Accomplished and Mission Impossible
9. A Terrible Love of Hope: Toward Peace Before Death
10. Absurd Pragmatism
11. The Spring Collection: Intermedia Moralia; or, a Romance of Our Incoherence
Notes
Index

Sujets

Philosophie

Épistémologie

Movements

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophie et théologie

Pragmatism

Informations

Publié par	Indiana University Press
Date de parution	10 novembre 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780253018977
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

PRAGMATIC FASHIONS
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
John J. Stuhr, editor
EDITORIAL BOARD
Susan Bordo
Vincent Colapietro
John Lachs
No lle McAfee
Jos Medina
Cheyney Ryan
Richard Shusterman
PRAGMATIC FASHIONS
Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd
John J. Stuhr
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by John J. Stuhr
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-01884-7 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-01891-5 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-01897-7 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
For Jessica Wahman ,
Ineffable love of my life ,
Without whom this book would have been finished much sooner
but much less happily
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Expressivism and Pragmatism
1 Chance Vistas and Sincerity in the Cosmic Labyrinth
2 Philosophies as Fashions
3 Does Philosophy Progress?: Criticism without Critique
4 Convergence and Difference: Immanent Pluralism
5 It s All Relative: Beyond Absolutism and Nihilism
6 Expressions of Nature: Refashioning the Hudson River School
7 Old Ideals Crumble: War and the Limits of Philosophy
8 Democracy as Public Experiment: Beyond Mission Accomplished and Mission Impossible
9 A Terrible Love of Hope: Toward Peace Before Death
10 Absurd Pragmatism
11 The Spring Collection: Intermedia Moralia; or, a Romance of Our Incoherence
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
T HE TEACHING, WRITINGS , and personal support of many close colleagues and former colleagues have had immense impact on my thought, an impact likely beyond my ability to recognize and surely beyond my ability to acknowledge adequately: Vincent Colapietro, John Lachs, Richard A. Lee Jr., John Lysaker, Jose Medina, Andrew Mitchell, Kelly Oliver, Melvin Rogers, John Russon, Cheyney Ryan, Charles E. Scott, Shannon Sullivan, Michael Sullivan, and Nancy Tuana.
Frequent participants in the American Philosophies Forum have also provided crucial intellectual stimulus and support: Megan Craig, Jeff Edmonds, Cynthia Gayman, Jennifer Hansen, Robert Innis, Mary Magada-Ward, Eduardo Mendieta, Richard Shusterman, Paul Taylor, Rosemary Tong, and Zach Vanderveen. I owe special and substantial thanks to Megan Craig, who provided thoughtful suggestions, detailed questions, and helpful prods that clarified and strengthened this book.
As a former student, a research assistant, and now a colleague and friend, Mark Fagiano has provided invaluable intellectual support and temperamental resonance.
Dee Mortensen, Editorial Director at Indiana University Press, is a joy to work with-perceptive, demanding, supportive, grounded, and funny, too-nothing short of embodiment of the Platonic Form of Good Editor. For their absolutely superb work, sincere thanks as well to Michelle Sybert, Project Manager/Editor, and Candace McNulty, Copyeditor.
And, above all, my thinking is continually illuminated and enriched-and reborn-by life with Jessica Wahman, to whom this book is dedicated.

Permission to publish revised and significantly expanded versions of my earlier articles is greatly appreciated:
An earlier, much shorter version of part of chapter 1 : Philosophy, Literature, and Dogma: Santayana and the View from Somewhere, Overheard in Seville 31, Fall 2013.
An earlier, much shorter version of chapter 2 : Only Going So Fast: Philosophies as Fashions, Journal of Speculative Philosophy 20, no. 2, 2006. Used by permission of the Pennsylvania State University Press.
An earlier, slightly different version of part of chapter 4 : Pragmatism and Convergence of Belief, Pluralism, and Betrayal, Discipline Filosofische 19, no. 2, 2009.
An earlier, much shorter and significantly different version of part of chapter 7 : Old Ideas Crumble: War, Pragmatist Intellectuals, and the Limits of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy 35, no. 1-2, 2004.
An earlier, much shorter version of part of chapter 8 : Neither Mission Accomplished Nor Mission Impossible: Democracy as Public Experiment, Kettering Review , Fall 2006.
An earlier, much shorter version of part of chapter 9 : A Terrible Love of Hope, Journal of Speculative Philosophy 22, no. 4, 2008. Used by permission of the Pennsylvania State University Press.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publishers and individuals for kind permission to reprint brief selections from the following copyrighted publications:
Wesley McNair, Fire (Boston: David R. Godine, 2002). Reprinted by permission of David R. Godine, Publisher. Copyright 2002 Wesley McNair.
Lisel Mueller, Monet Refuses the Operation, in Second Language (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), and reprinted in Alive Together: New and Selected Poems (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 186-187.
Miller Williams, The Journalist Buys a Pig Farm, in Living on the Surface (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 129.
Miller Williams, How Step by Step We Have Come to Understand, in Time and the Tilting Earth (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008).
Miller Williams, Notes from the Agent on Earth: How to Be Human, in Living on the Surface [originally published in Why God Permits Evil ] (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989 [1977]), 48.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following museums for kind permission to reproduce the following paintings (full credit lines for which appear with each reproduction):
Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, OH, USA)
George Inness- Misty Morning , 1893
Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
George Inness- The Clouded Sun , 1891
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA, USA)
George Inness- Home at Montclair , 1892
Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, NH, USA)
Martin Johnson Heade- Marshfield Meadows , 1878
Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI, USA)
Martin Johnson Heade- Sunset (on the Marshes) , 1880
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, USA)
George Inness- Spring Blossoms , 1891
Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, CT, USA)
William Holbrook Beard- Mountain Stream and Deer , 1865
Alfred Bierstadt- Toward the Setting Sun , 1862
Albert Bierstadt- In the Yosemite Valley , 1866
John William Casilear- Lake George , 1860
Frederic Church- Rapids of the Susquehanna , c. 1846
Frederic Church- View of Quebec , 1846
Frederic Church- Reverend Thomas Hooker and Company Journeying Through the Wilderness from Plymouth of Hartford, in 1636 , 1846
Frederic Church- Niagara Falls , 1856
Thomas Cole- Kaaterskill Falls , 1826
Thomas Cole- View in the White Mountains , 1827
Thomas Cole- Landscape, Composition, St. John in the Wilderness , 1827
Thomas Cole- View on Lake Winnipiseogee , 1828
John Denison Crocker- Home in the Wilderness , 1853
Jasper Francis Cropsey- Winter Scene, Ramapo Valley , 1853
Jasper Francis Cropsey- Autumn on the Susquehanna , 1878
Asher B. Durand- View toward the Hudson Valley , 1851
George Henry Durrie- Old Grist Mill , 1853
Alvan Fisher- Niagara Falls , 1823
Sanford Robinson Gifford- A Passing Storm in the Adirondacks , 1866
Martin Johnson Heade- Winding River, Sunset , c. 1863
Martin Johnson Heade- Gremlin in the Studio, II , 1871-1875
George Inness- Along the Hudson , c. 1876-77
John F. Kensett- Niagara Falls , 1855
John F. Kensett- Coast Scene with Figures (Beverly Shore) , 1869
John Vanderlyn- The Murder of Jane McCrea , 1804
Jacob Ward- Wolf in the Glen (Cattskill Falls) , c. 1833

The eleven photographs from the Seneca Lake Vistas series are by the author.
The final photograph, owned by the author, is by photojournalist Laura Pedrick: http://www.pedrickphoto.com
PRAGMATIC FASHIONS
Introduction
Expressivism and Pragmatism
T HERE ARE MANY philosophies-many views about the nature of reality, truth, beauty, goodness, justice, and the meaning of life. Sometimes they are set forth in the specialized jargon of academic scholars and supposed systems of philosophy professors, and sometimes-far more often-they are expressed in the beliefs, actions, habits, and commitments of everyday lives. To most people, at least some of these very many philosophies seem to be curious and strange narratives-distant and unilluminating, surprising and hard to understand, and far harder still to adopt as a living vision of, or reflection for, one s own life. In some places and at some times, only a small number of philosophies hold sway and in many large ways people think much like one another. In contrast, in some other places and at some other times, a great many different philosophies may be given expression all at the same time and people may think very differently from their neighbors or coworkers or fellow citizens. There are very many philosophies, different philosophies. There are very many lives, different lives.
In this book, I fashion and put to work one of these many philosophies. It is both expressivist -it views philosophies genealogically and as fashions of thought and personal expressions-and also pragmatic -it expresses a fallibilist, experimental, pluralist, relativist and radically empirical, and radically democratic, instrumental and practice-centered this-worldly sensibility. In keeping with an expressivist view of phi