Robert W. Shahan

Acquired specifically for an essay on C.S. Peirce, I ended up reading that essay and one other on Royce, together with the editors' introduction outlining (with some commentary) each selection. The essays amount to the proceedings of a 1976 conference at the University of Oklahoma. The book's title indicates the focus: a review of American (read: U.S.) philosophy. Fuss's final sentences are provocative: "I do not wish to be unfair. Royce is merely one of a number who tried and failed. In the sincere hope of being persuaded otherwise, my general impression is that, in spite of some auspicious beginnings [including Peirce's work], American philosophy has yet to happen." [143]

R.A. Delattre - "Beauty and Politics: A Problematic Legacy of Jonathan Edwards"
not read

A.R. Caponigri - "Individual, Civil Society, and State in American Transcendentalism"
not read

M.H. Fisch - "American Pragmatism before and after 1898"
I did not purchase this book in vain: Fisch's essay persuades me I must do some serious reading of Peirce, along with some long-neglected digging into the Scottish Enlightenment. Fisch adopts an unusual style: a quasi-fictional recounting of William James's presentation in 1898 at Berkeley, first unearthing various roots of the argument in work undertaken by James's "old friend" Peirce, and then tracing offshoots of both James and Peirce. It makes for very engaged, almost dramatic reading of a timeline that is in fact quite challenging to track. It also lays out some key concepts and works to examine in detail. Worth revisiting.

P. Fuss - "Royce on the Concept of the Self: An Historical and Critical Perspective"
Fuss lives up to his own billing, summarising Royce's work to present German Idealism to American audiences, and offering a critique of both the summary and Royce's own contributions to Idealism. Fuss notes Royce's work is primarily idealist, and only incidentally if significantly shaped by Peirce's pragmatism. In the end, Royce appears to be a good source for understanding the outlines of Idealism, but my interests in metaphysical realism suggest I'd do better reading Peirce in the original than spend time on Royce's epistemology.

F.A. Olafson - "George Santayana and the Idea of Philosophy"
not read

W.V. Quine - "Facts of the Matter"
After reading Shahan & Merrill's account in the introduction, I started then skimmed Quine's essay. His is a nominalist metaphysics, and it seems to me he hopes to save what I consider a lost cause. Of course, I hardly gave it a fair reading.… (mehr)