The human eros : eco-ontology and the aesthetics of existence / Thomas Alexander.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alexander, Thomas M., 1952-

Series:

American philosophy series.

American philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dewey, John, 1859-1952.

Dewey, John.

Santayana, George, 1863-1952.

Santayana, George.

Aesthetics.

Philosophy, American--20th century.

Philosophy, American.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 436 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Human Eros explores themes in classical American philosophy, primarily the thought of John Dewey, but also that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Santayana, and Native American traditions. Alexander’s primary claim is that human beings have an inherent need to experience meaning and value, a “Human Eros.” Ourvarious cultures are symbolic environments or “spiritual ecologies” within which the Human Eros seeks to thrive. This is how we inhabit the earth. Encircling and sustaining our cultural existence is nature, yet Western philosophy has not provided adequate conceptual models for thinking ecologically. Alexander introduces the idea of “eco-ontology” to explore ways in which this might be done, beginning with the primacy of Nature over Being but also including the recognition of possibility and potentiality as inherent aspects of existence. He argues for the centrality of Dewey’s thought to an effective ecological philosophy. Both “pragmatism” and “naturalism,” he shows, need to be contextualized within an emergentist, relational, nonreductive view of nature and an aesthetic, imaginative, nonreductive view of intelligence.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Aesthetics of Reality: The Development of Dewey’s Ecological Theory of Experience

2. Dewey’s Denotative-Empirical Method: A Thread through the Labyrinth

3. Be tween Being and Emptiness: Toward an Eco-ontology of Inhabitation

4. The Being of Nature: Dewey and Buchler and the Prospect for an Eco-ontology

5. The Human Eros

6. Pragmatic Imagination

7. John Dewey and the Moral Imagination: Beyond Putnam and Rorty toward an Ethics of Meaning

8. Educating the Democratic Heart: Pluralism, Traditions, and the Humanities

9 .“Love Calls Us to Things of This World”: Santayana’s Unbearable Lightness of Being

10. Mountains and Rivers without End: The Intertwining of Nature and Spirit in Emerson’s Aesthetics

11. Creating with Coyote: Toward a Native American Aesthetics

12. Tricksters and Shamans: Eros, Mythos, and the Eco-ontological Imagination

13. Santayana’s Sage: The Disciplines of Aesthetic Enlightenment

14. Beauty and the Labyrinth of Evil: Santayana and the Possibility of Naturalistic Mysticism

15. The Spirituality of the Possible in John Dewey’s A Common Faith

16. Eros and Spirit: Toward a Humanistic Philosophy of Culture

Bibliographic Essay on Resources for Native American Thought

Index

American Philosophy. Douglas R. Anderson and Jude Jones, series editors

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780823252299

0823252299

9780823252756

0823252752

9780823252305

0823252302

9780823251223

0823251225

OCLC:

844436785