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

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: McDermott, John J.,
• HerausgeberIn: Anderson, Douglas R.,
• MitwirkendeR: Anderson, Douglas,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Fordham University Press, , [2022]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: American Philosophy
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (416 p.)

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.

Table of 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