Creativity in American Philosophy"The reader will find that I combine hearty enthusiasm for the philosophical traditions of my country with sharp partial disagreement with nearly all their representatives. My effort throughout my career has been to think about philosophical, that is, essentially a priori or metaphysical, issues, using the history of ideas as a primary resource. "This is the second of two volumes dealing with the history of philosophy, especially of metaphysics. The first, Insights and Oversights of Great Thinkers, discusses some thirty European philosophers, from Democritus to Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty. In both volumes I try to learn and teach truth about reality by arguing, in a fashion, with those who in the past have sought such truth." — Charles Hartshorne In a remarkable tour de force, Charles Hartshorne presents a lively and illuminating study of what major American philosophers have said about creativity. With a special talent for perceiving and elegantly expressing the essence of a position, Dr. Hartshorne details his reactions to friend and foe, demonstrating that philosophy at its best is dialogue. Noting that metaphysics is a major theme in the American philosophical tradition, he states that "nowhere has the topic been more persistently and searchingly investigated than in this country." |
Contents
From Colonial Beginnings to Philosophical Greatness | 1 |
Jonathan Edwards on God and Causality | 14 |
Some Early American Critics of Determinism | 27 |
Ethan Allen | 28 |
A Noble Unitarian | 31 |
Emersons Secularized Calvinism and Thoreaus Approach to Anarchism | 34 |
Jamess Empirical Pragmatism | 50 |
Royces Mistakes and Achievements | 63 |
Wilmon H Sheldons Classical Theism | 184 |
Blanshards Necessitarianism | 192 |
Brightmans Theory of the Given and Idea of God | 196 |
Pepper and McKeon on Philosophical Systems | 205 |
Montagues Animistic Materialism and Promethean Religion | 211 |
Weisss Phenomenology of Religion | 220 |
Adlers NeoAristotelianism | 229 |
Roy and Wilfrid Sellars on Quality and Structure | 240 |
A Revision of Peirces Categories | 74 |
The DowntoEarth Activism of John Dewey | 92 |
Whiteheads Revolutionary Concept of Prehension | 103 |
Santayanas Skeptical Eclecticism | 114 |
Meads Social Psychology and Philosophy of the Present | 126 |
Hocking and Perry on Idealism | 146 |
Lewis on Memory Modality and the Given | 159 |
Cohen and Sheldon on Polarity | 182 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute abstract actual Adler animals argument Aristotle aspects aware basic belief Bergson Brightman Buchler Buddhists C. I. Lewis causal chapter classical classical theism conceivable concept concrete conscious contingent creative creatures datum definite deity dependence determinism Dewey distinction divine doctrine dualism Edwards Emerson empirical empiricism entities eternal existence experience Fechner feeling freedom future G. E. Moore given Hegel human idea ideal imply independent individual infinite influence intuition James knowledge least Leibniz Lewis logic Marxist matter Mead Mead's meaning memory merely metaphysics mind monism Montague nature neoclassical object panpsychism past Paul Weiss Peirce's perception perhaps philosophical physical Plato possible pragmatic prehended present principle priori problem process philosophy process theology psychical question reality reason relation religion religious Rorty Royce Royce's Santayana seems sense Sheldon Socinian synechism theism theology theory things thought tradition truth tychism University Weiss writings