Pragmatic Method, Transformation, Perspectivism, and Individualism: The Cornerstone of Pragmatism Laid by Ralph Waldo Emerson
| Thesis title in Czech: | Pragmatická metoda, transformace, perspektivizmus a individualismus: Základní kámen pragmatismu položený Ralphem Waldem Emersonem |
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| Thesis title in English: | Pragmatic Method, Transformation, Perspectivism, and Individualism: The Cornerstone of Pragmatism Laid by Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Key words: | Ralph Waldo Emerson|pragmatizmus|metóda|prchavosť|budúcnosť|kreativita|metafora|predstavivosť|individualizmus|Richard Poirier|John Dewey|vzdelávanie|rast |
| English key words: | Ralph Waldo Emerson|pragmatism|method|fugacity|future|creativity|metaphor|imagination|individualism|Richard Poirier|John Dewey|education|growth |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2018/2019 |
| Thesis type: | Bachelor's thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | David Lee Robbins, Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 31.10.2018 |
| Date of assignment: | 31.10.2018 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 29.11.2018 |
| Date and time of defence: | 17.06.2019 09:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 28.03.2019 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 17.06.2019 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil. |
| Guidelines |
| This BA thesis aims to investigate the four characteristics of pragmatic philosophy that appear in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is widely considered to be the founder of this school of thought. The thesis starts with the introduction and an attempt to define pragmatism, as sketched by different thinkers (William James’ Pragmatism and secondary sources). The overall aim of the thesis is to point out the sources and correspondences between Emerson’s preliminary signals of pragmatism and what later became the philosophy of pragmatism proper. Thus, the method of comparison and subsequent analysis is employed. After the introduction, the second chapter will look at the signs of pragmatic method in Emerson’s work. The third chapter will examine the transformative nature of Emersonian reality that is ever-changing and future-oriented. The fourth chapter will investigate Emerson’s approachtowards perspectivism, and his approach of transformativemetaphor as it is usedby the human consciousness. Finally, the fifth chapter will analyzeEmerson’s arguments for andsupport of personal individualism that is pervasive throughout his works as well. |
| References |
| Bibliography Richard J. Bernstein, The New Constellation: the Ethical and Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992). Giles Gunn, Thinking Across the American Grain: Ideology, Intellect, and the New Pragmatism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). Sidney Hook, Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1974). William James, Pragmatism (1907; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975). James T. Kloppenberg, Uncertain Victory: Social Democracy and Progressivism in European and American Thought, 1870-1920 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). ---, "Pragmatism: an Old Name for Some New Ways of Thinking," Journal of American History (forthcoming). Richard Poirier, Poetry and Pragmatism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992). David L. Robbins, Emerson the Nihilist, redux atque resartus from Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature & Culture, Volume 24, Issue 48: Between Romanticism & the Crisis of Modernity (December 2014) H.S. Thayer, Meaning and Action: a Critical History of Pragmatism (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981). Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989). Richard B. Westbrook, John Dewey and American Democracy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992). James T. Kloppenberg, "Pragmatism," in Richard Wightman Fox and James T. Kloppenberg, eds., A Companion to American Thought (Cambridge, Blackwell, 1995), pp. 537-40. Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson so far analyzed: Nature (1836) The American Scholar (1837) Divinity School Address (1838) Essays: First Series (1841) I. History II. Self-Reliance III. Compensation IV. Spiritual Laws X. Circles Essays: Second Series (1844) II. Experience The Conduct of Life (1860) I. Fate IX. Illusions Letters and Social Aims (1875) I. Poetry and Imagination |