As I read Anderson's Philosophy Americana this week, I found myself remembering my experiences in the wilderness that remains in our vast nation and in Canada. These were life forming times of profound contemplation, dare I say philosophical contemplation. My view of our world and understandings about the meaning and purpose of my life we forever changed by these experiences. Next week I am planning to travel with my wife and help a friend move here recently purchased houseboat 200 miles up the Tennessee Tom Bigbee river system. The rivers of our nation are some of the last places in the more developed areas of the country where you can still experience something like wilderness.
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Dr. Phil Oliver -- phil.oliver@mtsu.edu James Union Building (JUB) 300 Our course explores American philosophy in the context of American cu...
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Oops! Forgot to give you the scorecard Tuesday night. Make a note to record your Jy 9 participation in the "2d inning"column next...
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Anderson, ch-6-8; McDermott, ch8-10; Romano, Part 3. REPORT: Gary, Pragmatism & 12-step programs I jumped the gun on that question abou...
Guessing this is Gary... Wild(er)ness has multiple levels of meaning for the pragmatists, both literally the wild nature of our formerly-unsettled continent and the relatively few preserves of it we've managed to set aside; AND the philosophical notion of unconstrained possibility awaiting our choices and actions. When Thoreau said "in wildness is preservation of the world" I think he was leaning on both senses. A world entirely "settled" would also be a world much diminished in terns of future possibility, and much denuded in terms of imaginative richness.
ReplyDeleteRoyce offered us work as philosophical wanderers in a wilderness, but he gave little articulation to the nature of that wilderness.1 I turn now to Henry Bugbee’s thoughts on such a wilderness, and I begin by noting that Bugbee was deeply influenced by Gabriel Marcel, who, in turn, was much indebted to the work of Royce.2 Thus, there is a natural continuity that underlies the discussion at hand. In his essays “Walking” and “Wild Apples,” Henry Thoreau spoke of wilderness as a metaphorical expression of the inner wildness necessary for us to overcome the deadening effects of overcivilization.
ReplyDeleteBugbee is a fascinating and much-overlooked figure. We read about him next week in Anderson.
DeleteRestored the missing "s" to your subject heading, Gary.
DeleteFYI, all: to edit a post, click on the pencil icon.