The Soul of Classical American Philosophy: The Ethical and Spiritual Insights of William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce

by Richard P. Mullin

Overview

The Soul of Classical American Philosophy is an introduction to the thought of William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce, particularly in terms of the ethical and the spiritual. Writing for the nonspecialist in a straightforward style, Richard P. Mullin brings together the central ideas of these three key figures of classical American Pragmatism and explores their engagement with issues of truth, the meaning of self, free will, moral values, community, scientific thinking, and the relationship with the transcendent. He also addresses the growing international interest in American philosophy and sheds light on a defining movement in its history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791480014
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	188
File size:	414 KB

About the Author

Richard P. Mullin is Professor of Philosophy at Wheeling Jesuit University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

            Purpose of this Work
            Personal Note

List of Abbreviations

Part I. William James

1. Meaning and Truth

            Pragmatism
            Radical Empiricism

2. Body and Mind

            Materialism versus Dualism
            Neither Dualism nor Materialism
            A Radical Empiricist View of Mind and Body

3. Free Will

            Psychology and the Subjective Experience of Free Will
            Indeterminism and the Physical Possibility of Free Will
            A Late Twentieth-Century Adaptation of James’s Concept of Free Will       

4. William James and Moral Philosophy

            The Task of the Moral Philosopher
            James’s Moral Ideals
            The Adequacy of James’s Theory

5. Rationality and Religious Faith

            Faith in the Salvation of the World
            The Meaning of Rationality
            The Reasonableness of Theism
            William James’s Personal Faith
            Human Immortality

6. Human Nature and the Life of the Spirit

            Spirituality Defined and Placed in a Metaphysical Context
            Naturalism and Spirituality
            The How and Why of Spirituality
            A Worldview Compatible with Spirit 

Part II. Josiah Royce

7. The Idealism of Josiah Royce

            Ideas and Reality
            TheFirst and Second Conceptions of Being: Realism and Mysticism
            The Third Conception of Being: Critical Rationalism
            The Fourth Conception of Being: Royce’s Idealism

8. Josiah Royce’s Concept of the Self

            The Ambiguity of the Self
            The Self as an Ethical Category
            The Individual and the Whole

9. Josiah Royce’s Philosophy of Loyalty as the Basis for Ethics

             Royce’s Idea of Loyalty
            The American Problem
            The Contemporary Problem
            The Practicality of Roycean Loyalty
            Ethics and the Full-Breasted Richness of Life                                                   

10. The Religious Insights of Josiah Royce

            Individual Experience
            Social Experience
            Reason
            Will
            Loyalty
            Sorrow           
            Unity of the Spirit
            What James Missed

Part III. Charles Sanders Peirce

11. Peirce and the Origin of Pragmatism

            Peirce’s Pragmatism
            Peirce’s Critique of Nominalistic Pragmatism

12. Charles Sanders Peirce on the Human Person

            Peirce’s Critique of the Separated Self
            The Illusory Self and the Authentic Self

13. Ethics and the Purpose of Human Life

            Reasons for the Incompatibility of Practical Theoretical Ethics
            The Place of Ethics in Peirce’s Architectonic 
            Love and Evolution
            Deriving a Virtue Ethic from Peirce’s Theoretical Ethics
            Continuity of Practical and Theoretical Ethics                                               

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index