American Philosophy Spring 2016 Jude Jones

Preliminary Syllabus Schedule of readings TBA

Description: This course will be conducted in a seminar format, as a collaboration in thinking about the work of mostly classical but also some contemporary pragmatism. Framed as a survey, we will nonetheless explore certain issues in a persistent way. These issues include but are not limited to:

 The status of ‘Experience’ in philosophy and what philosophy talks about  The interface of Human and the Natural as well as the Social  The role of Habit in knowledge and life  The nature of Mind & Rationality

As a collaboration, we will be open to directing conversation in accord with the interests and inquiries of our participants. To that end, students will serve as official “questioners” who prompt our discussions with developed and contextualized questions rooted solidly in texts/readings. We will be careful about texts even as we philosophize beyond them. Generosity and care in interpreting our readings will be expected alongside critique and analysis.

Requirements: A. Term Paper: The largest single requirement is the production of a term paper of 20 pages in length. Topics should be well in place by the end of Spring Break, with some bibliography in place. Papers should be well-researched pieces of scholarship, taking on some aspect of American Philosophy in a serious and engaged manner. Both the paper and the topic should be submitted in hard copy and electronically, with consultation coming whenever it is needed or wanted.

B. Questions: Students will prepare written questions to be shared with the seminar on assigned weeks. We will divide the class into smaller sets of individuals responsible on given weeks for these questions. Questions should be situated/contextualized in the text and serve to focus discussion on the text in some interesting way. They may be simple inquiries about meaning, critical arguments, comparisons with other thinkers, etc., but should always invite participation by other seminarists. Questions should be 150-300 words. In addition to prodding discussion, questions will serve as a growing body of written inquiry for individual students.

C. Discussion: Passivity being inimical to the American philosophical spirit, participants are expected to be engaged in the discussion on a regular basis. Being well-prepared, present and attentive, and contributing to conversation are required. This means that all contributions need to be welcomed respectfully and with generosity on the part of all involved, as part of the inquiry process we will share.

Major Figures/Texts:

William James The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition, ed John McDermott (University of Chicago Press, 1978)

John Dewey The Philosophy of John Dewey, ed John McDermott (University of Chicago Press, 1981)

Charles Sanders Peirce Philosophical Writings of Peirce, ed Buchler (Dover, 2011)

Richard Bernstein The Pragmatic Turn (Polity Press, 2010).

In addition to these texts, we will have additional core and supplementary readings from George Santayana, Richard Rorty, John Smith and others provided online/electronically.