I periodically reread some of the classic and formative articles that set me on the meaningless path of the higher mind. You always remember your first, as they say, and so I remember Russell’s On Denoting and “the present King of Scotland." Russell became the leading edge of the analytic movement (apologies to Meinong fans). My sentimental favorite has to be Hilary Putnam’s "Brains in a Vat", widely and freely available on the web. For those unfamiliar with it, it is basically a print exposition of the ideas contained in the film The Matrix.
This got me thinking about how to get people to think about thinking ... Catch that? Philosophers have to be clever as well as verbose. In our beloved homeland of Murika, we have a long tradition of anti-intellectualism; the egghead as the butt of jokes. Even a cursory glance at the political landscape reveals the reality of this phenomenon. But Hilary Putnam has an answer to that! (warning: snark follows. I’m really an admirer of Putnam).
Say philosophy and most Americans probably think of Aristotle, Plato, and perhaps Nietzsche. But wait. We don’t need to drown ourselves in the morass of failed European metaphysics, or the mad logic chopping of positivism. We here in America have our own traditions, rooted in rugged individualism, pigheadedness, and practicality. It’s called Pragmatism. Pragmatism has enjoyed something of a resurgence lately, due in part to thinkers like Putnam, Rorty and others, who in turn have helped to resurrect a true American Idol, John Dewey, of University of Chicago fame. Dewey represents to some the pinnacle of a lineage that extends from, if you ignore John Stuart Mill, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, to Dewey, and from thence to the moderns.
Analytic and continental philosophy is moribund. Someone should alert Saul Kripke, but he has that American working man Eric Hoffer/longshoreman type personna, and he looks like what a rugged American philosopher should look like, so we’ll give him a pass.
American ethical philosophy came into prominence with the worldwide influence of American John Rawls. Libertarians (obligatory dkos hhhssssss!) have Robert Nozick, whose Anarchy, State and Utopia I read when young and found very intriguing. Suzanne Langer, Cornel West, and countless others round out a field large enough to keep you reading for the rest of your life without encountering another Descartes, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty or any other french American hating bigots. Don’t even get me started on sweaty Scandinavian philosophers.
Yessir, stick to the real deal, USA, USA, USA all-American F*%# Yeah philosophers.
7:47 AM PT: Update: From a pragmatic viewpoint, it is too cold this morning to do philosophy. Minus 5 wind chill currently in Knoxville, TN., with a low of zero expected tonight, in the land of Magnolias.