Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers

by Paul Conkin

Overview

Eight brilliant and original American thinkers - Edwards, Franklin, John Adams, Emerson, Peirce, William James, Dewey, and Santayana - are the subject of this widely admired book by one of America's foremost writers of intellectual history. In this study, the author finds a degree of continuity and some elements of underlying unity in the varied and idiosyncratic thoughts of these men. Instead of superficial similarities, he emphasizes a common moral tenor, an instrumental conception of knowledge, and a broad, ethical conception of art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481314633
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2020
Pages:	505
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.18(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul K. Conkin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition

Chapter I

The Puritan Prelude

God and Man

Morals and Society

Spirit and Matter

Part One: Diverse Puritans

Chapter II

Jonathan Edwards: Theology

Ultimate Concerns

The Great Awakening and Affectionate Religion

The Battle against Arminianism

Chapter III

Benjamin Franklin: Science and Morals

Career and Character

Natural Science

Moral Science

Chapter IV

John Adams: Politics

Portrait of an Enlightened Puritan

In Defense of Liberty

The Republican Idea

Part Two: In Transition

Chapter V

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Poet-Priest

The Early Pilgrimage

Self-Reliance

Philosophy

Intellect and Art

Part Three: Three Pragmatists

Chapter VI

Charles S. Peirce

Life

Signs and Relations

Inquiry and the Pragmatic Test

The categories and Realism

Scientific Metaphysics

Axiology and Religion

Chapter VII

William James

The Courageous Pilgrimage

Psychology

Voluntarism

In Pursuit of an Ontology

Pragmatism

Practical Concerns

Chapter VIII

John Dewey

The Long Pathway to Naturalism

The Metaphysical Framework

Epistemology

Value

Philosophy in Action

Part Four: In Retreat

Chapter IX

George Santayana

Life

The Metaphysical Foundation

Epistemology

Axiology

Politics and Art

Religion

A Reading Guide

Index

What People are Saying About This

[Conkin's] book is a remarkable effort at synthesis and elucidation. The perennial nature of philosophy—nature, mind, reality, values, consciousness, and so forth—reappear in this impressive study of major American thinkers.

John P. Diggins

[Conkin's] book is a remarkable effort at synthesis and elucidation. The perennial nature of philosophy—nature, mind, reality, values, consciousness, and so forth—reappear in this impressive study of major American thinkers.

John Higham

Paul Conkin's [volume] is a most extraordinary piece of work. The explication of each individual is first of all a rigorous philosophical analysis, grounded in epistemology and metaphysics and unflinching in its treatment of what historians tend to consider 'technical' problems. But Conkin also discusses well the less precise features of a man's outlook, including his social and moral attitudes; a concise but often illuminating sketch of his life and personality is supplied, and the whole is infused with a fine feeling for the beauty and adventures of human thought.

A. Owen Alderidge

One can immediately grant the honesty and conviction [of this work], but the third quality that impresses the reader is a highly impressionistic style.