A Natural History of Pragmatism

Joan Richardson0521694507, 9780521694506, 0521837480, 9780521837484, 9780511261114

Joan Richardson provides a fascinating and compelling account of the emergence of the quintessential American philosophy: pragmatism. She demonstrates pragmatism’s engagement with various branches of the natural sciences and traces the development of Jamesian pragmatism from the late nineteenth century through modernism, following its pointings into the present. Richardson combines strands from America’s religious experience with scientific information to offer interpretations that break new ground in literary and cultural history. This book exemplifies the value of interdisciplinary approaches to producing literary criticism. In a series of highly original readings of Edwards, Emerson, William and Henry James, Stevens, and Stein, A Natural History of Pragmatism tracks the interplay of religious motive, scientific speculation, and literature in shaping an American aesthetic. Wide-ranging and bold, this groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all students and scholars of American literature.

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Table of contents :
Half-title……Page 3
Series-title……Page 4
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Preface……Page 11
Abbreviations……Page 19
THUS, IN THE BEGINNING, ALL THE WORLD WAS AMERICA……Page 21
IF WE DESIRE TO LIVE, WE CAN ONLY DO SO IN THE MARGINS OF THAT PLACE……Page 29
EXPERIENCE IS IN MUTATION ………Page 32
THE MIND FEELS WHEN IT THINKS……Page 44
GOD IS A COMMUNICATING BEING……Page 64
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD……Page 82
… IN THY BRAIN, THE GEOMETRY OF THE CITY OF GOD……Page 99
BUT CAN A HERMENEUTICS OF THE RELIGIOUS DO WITHOUT UNBALANCED THOUGHTS?……Page 118
WILD FACTS……Page 143
ICH KRYSTALL……Page 152
TO THINK IS TO ACT……Page 157
THINKING ABOUT THINKING……Page 166
THE ABSENCE OF IMAGINATION HAD ITSELF TO BE IMAGINED……Page 175
THE ONE CONFUSED FACT WHICH THESE CURRENTS CAUSE TO APPEAR IS PERCEIVED TO BE MANY FACTS……Page 185
THE POET IS THE PRIEST OF THE INVISIBLE……Page 199
BUT YOU CANNOT APPROACH NOTHING; FOR THERE IS NOTHING TO APPROACH……Page 214
MUSIC IS A LOGICAL STRUCTURING LIKE A MATHEMATICAL PROOF OF ITSELF, BUT IT IS NOT MATHEMATICS. IT IS MORE LIKE A MATHEMATICAL STORY TOLD DRAMATICALLY; NOT NECESSARILY WITH HIGH DRAMA, BUT WITH PASSION……Page 236
SLOWLY EVERY ONE IN CONTINUOUS REPEATING, TO THEIR MINUTEST VARIATION, COMES TO BE CLEARER TO SOME ONE……Page 252
AND I SAID THERE WAS EMERSON……Page 253
LET ME MAKE BELIEVE THAT I HAVE SEEN IT AND THEN. I WILL DESCRIBE IT……Page 256
“READING” SIMPLY IS, IS THERE……Page 258
YOU SEE MELANCTHA … I GOT A NEW FEELING NOW, YOU BEEN TEACHING TO ME, JUST LIKE I TOLD YOU ONCE, JUST LIKE A NEW RELIGION TO ME……Page 262
BECOME BECAUSE……Page 269
… WHAT A GREAT PART IN MAGIC WORDS HAVE ALWAYS PLAYED……Page 270
1 INTRODUCTION: FRONTIER INSTANCES……Page 273
2 IN JONATHAN EDWARDS’S ROOM OF THE IDEA……Page 279
3 EMERSON’S MOVING PICTURES……Page 288
4 WILLIAM JAMES’S FEELING OF IF……Page 295
5 HENRY JAMES’S MORE THAN RATIONAL DISTORTION……Page 304
6 WALLACE STEVENS’S RADIANT AND PRODUCTIVE ATMOSPHERE……Page 311
7 GERTRUDE STEIN, JAMES’S MELANCTHON/A……Page 318
Bibliography……Page 323
Index……Page 336