The Drama of Possibility : Experience as Philosophy of Culture / John J. McDermott; ed. by Douglas R. Anderson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDermott, John J., Author.

Contributor:

Anderson, Douglas R., Editor.

Anderson, Douglas, Contributor.

Series:

American Philosophy

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book traces the trajectory of John J. McDermott’s philosophical career through a selection of his essays. Many were originally occasional pieces and address specific issues in American thought and culture. Together they constitute a mosaic of McDermott’s philosophy, showing its roots in an American conception of experience. Though he draws heavily on the thought of William James and the pragmatists, McDermott has his own unique perspective on philosophy and American life. He presents this to the reader in exquisitely crafted prose. Drawing inspiration from American history, from existentialist themes, and from personal experiences, he offers a dramatic consideration of our culture’s failures and successes. McDermott crosses disciplinary boundaries to draw on whatever works to help make sense of the issues with which he is dealing—issues rooted in medical practice, political events, pedagogical habits, and the worlds of the arts. His work thus resists simple categorization. It is precisely this that makes his vibrant prose appealing to so many both inside and outside the world of American philosophy.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Reading McDermott

Prelude: Remarks upon Receiving the 2004 Presidential Teaching Award

Prescript

Part 1: An American Angle of Vision

Poem: Roots/Edges

1 Threadbare Crape

2 An American Angle of Vision, Part1

3 An American Angle of Vision, Part2

4 Spires of Influence

5 Josiah Royce’s Philosophy of the Community

6 Possibility or Else!

Part 2: Environing

Poem: The Professional Tin Cup

7 A Relational World

8 Nature Nostalgia and the City

9 Space, Time, and Touch

10 Glass without Feet

Part 3: Turning

Poem: Waiting

11 Why Bother

12 Ill-at-Ease

13 ‘‘Turning’’ Backward

14 The Inevitability of Our Own Death

15 Isolation as Starvation

Part 4: Bequeathing

Poem: Deadlines

16 Hast Any Philosophy in Thee, Shepherd?

17 The Cultural Immortality of Philosophy as Human Drama

18 To Be Human Is to Humanize

19 Experience Grows by Its Edges

20 The Aesthetic Drama of the Ordinary

Part 5: Teaching

Poem: lurking

21 The Gamble for Excellence

22 Liberty and Order in the Educational Anthropology of Maria Montessori

23 The Erosion of Face-to-Face Pedagogy

24 Cultural Literacy

25 Trumping Cynicism with Imagination

Finis

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Mrz 2022)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780823292868

082329286X

OCLC:

1369661472