Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

After finishing the research for the Bechtel Room portrait guide, I can’t help wondering: is the path that Anglo-American philosophy took in the 20th century really “progress,” the natural evolution of the discipline?  Or is it merely the result of a set of personalities, egos, historical circumstances, ideologies, and such that came together at a particular point in history to drive Anglo-American philosophy down a particular path that was not inevitable?

I realize that I’m being provocative with my questions, given that there is a common perception that what did happen is precisely natural and progress.  Yet, I don’t want to slip into some post-modern silliness, either.

What do you think, readers?  I’m genuinely curious to know your views.

Good morning, readers!

As  I’m working on the guide that I mentioned in my post two weeks ago, I want to share with you some good general histories and critiques of and guides to American philosophy and philosophers that I’ve uncovered.  A few of these overlap with the earlier post, but I want to include them here as well.

Alcoff, L. M.  (2003).  Singing in the Fire: Stories of Women in Philosophy.  New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Campbell, J.  (2007).  One Hundred Years of Pragmatism.  Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 43(1): 1-15.

Charles S. Peirce Society.  (2009).  Retrieved 8 October 2009 from http://www.peircesociety.org/.

DeArmey, M. & Good, J. A. (Eds.) (2001).  The St. Louis Hegelians.  3 Vols. New York: Thoemmes Continuum.

Ferguson, A.  (1994).  Twenty Years of Feminist Philosophy.  Hypatia 9(3): 197-215.

Field, R.  (2005).  The St. Louis Hegelians.  Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  Retrieved 5 October 2009 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/hstlouis.

Floyd, J. & Shieh, S.  (2001).  Future Pasts: The Analytic Tradition in Twentieth-Century Philosophy.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Goodman, R. (2009).  Transcendentalism.  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. E. N. Zalta (Ed.).  Retrieved 5 October 2009 from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/transcendentalism.

Haldane, J.  (2002).  American Philosophy: ‘Scotch’ or ‘Teutonic’?  Philosophy 77(301): 311-329.

Hollinger, D. A. (1980).  The Problem of Pragmatism in American History.  Journal of American History 67(1): 88-107.

Kaag, J.  (2008).  Women and Forgotten Movements in American Philosophy: The Work of Ella Lyman Cabot and Mary Parker Follett.  Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 44(1): 134-157.

Karnos, D. D. & Shoemaker, R. G.  (1994).  Falling in Love with Wisdom: American Philosophers Talk About Their Calling.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Kuklick, B.  (1977).  The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kuklick, B.  (2002).  A History of Philosophy in America, 1720-2000.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Marsoobian, A. T. & Ryder, J.  (Eds.) (2004).  The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy.  New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Miller, P.  (1970). The Life of the Mind in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War.  New York: Mariner.

Outlaw, L. T. (1996). The “Future” of Philosophy in America. In On Race and Philosophy.  New York: Routledge.  183-204.

Outlaw, L. T. (1997).  Africana Philosophy. Journal of Ethics 1(3): 265-290.

Pragmatism Cybrary.  (2009).  Retrieved 8 October 2009 from http://www.pragmatism.org/.

Rorty, R.  (1980).  Philosophy in America Today.  In Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays, 1972-1980.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  211-230.

Soames, S.  (2003).  Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century.  2 vols.  Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy.  (2009).  Retrieved 9 October 2009 from http://www.american-philosophy.org/index.htm.

West, C. (1989).  The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism.  Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Wettstein, H. & French, P. A. (Eds.).  (2004).  The American Philosophers. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. XXVIII.  New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Yancy, G.  (Ed.).  (1998).  African-American Philosophers: 17 Conversations.  New York: Routledge

Are there others that I’m missing?

Good morning, readers!

Right now, I’m working on a guide to the portraits in the Bechtel Room, Emerson Hall 107.  It’s been fascinating to research the history of the twenty-two faculty portrayed in painting, photography, and sculpture in this room.

In doing so, I have uncovered several histories of philosophy about the Department.  Most cover from the founding of Harvard in 1636 through the 1930s. You may find these of interest:

*Campbell, J. (2006).  A Thoughtful Profession: The Early Years of the American Philosophical Association.  Chicago: Open Court Publishers.

*Kuklick, B. (1977).  The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

*Joralemon, D. R. (1980).  Too Many Philosophers.  American Heritage Magazine 31(6).  Retrieved 22 September 2009 from  http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1980/6/1980_6_16_print.shtml.

*Menand, L. (2000).  The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America.  New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

*Palmer, G. H. & Perry, R. B. (1930).  Philosophy: 1870-1929.  In The Development of Harvard University Since the Inauguration of President Eliot, 1869-1929. S. E. Morison, Ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press: 3-32.

*Rand, B. (1929).  Philosophical Instruction in Harvard University from 1636-1906.  Boston: Harvard Graduates Magazine Association.

The history of the Department of Philosophy in the latter seven decades of the twentieth century and the early decades of the twenty-first century remains to be written.  Nonetheless, there are a few sources that give a broader context to this historical period, and which include references to the Department during this time.  These include:

*Brightman, E. S. (1947).  Philosophy in the United States 1939-1945.  The Philosophical Review 56 (4): 390-405.

*Floyd, J. & Shieh, S. (2001).  Future Pasts: The Analytic Tradition in Twentieth-Century Philosophy.  New York: Oxford University Press.

*McCumber, J. (2001).  Time in the Ditch: American Philosophy and the McCarthy Era.  Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

*Reisch, G. (2005).  How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*West, C. (1989). The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

I have reviewed McCumber and Reisch in an earlier post, if you are interested in learning more about those two books.

Are there other items to add to this list?  Please let me know in the comments box.

Over the course of its over one hundred years of existence, Robbins Library has acquired several special collections. One of the more interesting of these collections contains approximately two hundred volumes of primary and secondary sources by and about Søren Kierkegaard.

In addition to works by and about Kierkegaard, this collection also includes several works by people connected with him. From Rasmus Nielsen, for example, we have, e.g., Religionsphilosophie (1869) and Mag. S. Kierkegaards „Johannes Climacus” og Dr H. Martensens „Christelige Dogmatik”: En undersøgende Unmeldese (1849). From H.L. Martensen, for another, we have an English translation of his Christelige Dogmatik (Christian Dogmatics, 1871).

In general, the collection is comprised mainly of books, but there are also several photocopies of articles by Harald Höffding, a nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and scholar of Kierkegaard. Overall, the items range in date from the 1840s to the 1960s. The primary works include the complete published writings of Kierkegaard, along with his Journals and Papers, in Danish. Additionally, there are various German, Spanish, and English* translations of a number of his individual works. The secondary literature is in Danish, German, French, and English. It is our understanding, after consulting with those versed in the literature on Kierkegaard, that this part of the collection contains a number of important secondary works, some of which influenced the young Martin Heidegger in his own studies of Kierkegaard.

All of the materials in the Kierkegaard collection have been cataloged and can be found via HOLLIS at http://discovery.lib.harvard.edu. These items will have the notation “Kierk” before the call number.

If you are interested in looking at the Kierkegaard materials, please contact me at pannone [at] fas [d0t] harvard [d0t] edu, to set up an appointment.

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*The English translations are mostly, but not entirely, those of Walter Lowrie.

Good morning, readers!

Today, I am going to start a series of occasional posts on the history of philosophy at Harvard University.  I have been doing some research about this, and I would like to share the fruits of my labor with you.  Harvard has had (and still has) a large and influential role in American philosophy, so it’s interesting to learn more about this history.
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Given the prominence and history of Harvard in American education, it is unsurprising that several famous figures have passed through the Department of Philosophy over the years.

Three of the Department’s most famous visitors are Bertrand Russell, Rudolph Carnap, and Alfred Tarski. These three taught at Harvard during the 1940-1941 academic year: Russell and Carnap in the Department of Philosophy, and Tarski in the Department of Mathematics. [1]

Yet, we may number more than philosophers among those who have passed through the Department. There are poets among these ranks, most notably Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) and T. S. Eliot. (1888 – 1965). Stevens attended Harvard from 1894 to 1897 as a non-degree special student, and became close to George Santayana – in fact, one of his later poems is “To an Old Philosopher in Rome,” written in homage to his old mentor. [2] Stevens maintained a life-long interest in philosophy, as evidenced in his poetry and essays. [3]

On his part, Eliot attended Harvard from 1906 to 1910, taking his A.B. in the latter year. He spent the next several years studying philosophy and traveling in Europe, submitting a dissertation in philosophy to Harvard in 1916. However, he was not awarded a Ph.D., since he did not return to Cambridge for a dissertation defense. Philosophy would be part of the fabric of Eliot’s work for much of his life.

Finally, J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967), the father of the atomic bomb, included philosophy among his studies during his undergraduate years at Harvard. Bird & Sherwin (2006) write that, as a concentrator in chemistry, he attended Whitehead’s 1924 course on the Principia Mathematica. [4]  They also include a letter of Oppenheimer’s to a friend, in which he notes that he spent a good deal of time studying in Robbins Library. [5]  Oppenheimer, a gifted polymath, retained an interest in philosophy, especially Asian philosophy, throughout his life.

Notes:

[1.] For those who are curious, the Harvard President’s Report for 1940-41 lists their respective courses, along with enrollment numbers: http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/AnnualReportsCites.htm#tarHarvardPresidents.

[2.] A copy of this poem can be found at http://englishhistory.net/keats/old-phil.html.

[3.]  See Stevens, W. (1997).  Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose.  New York: Library of America.

[4.] Bird, K. & Sherwin, M.J. (2006).  American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.  New York: Vintage Books, 34-35.

[5.] Bird & Sherwin (2006), 35.