America the Philosophical

Philosophical America

In a 1908 essay, "On Certain Limitations of the Thoughtful Public in America" the American philosopher Josiah Royce took issue with those who denied the thoughtful character of much of the American public. Royce said: "when foreigners accuse us of extraordinary love for gain, and of practical materialism, they fail to see how largely we are a nation of idealists." Royce proceeded to explain that by "idealist" he did not mean a commitment to a philosophical doctrine but rather "a man or woman who is consciously and predominantly guided, in the purposes and in the great choices of life, by large ideals, such as admit of no merely material embodiment, and such as contemplate no merely private and personal satisfaction as their goal". In this sense, Royce found considerable idealism in the Puritans, the Declaration of Independence, the Civil War, and in the America of his day.

Carlin Romano's book, "America the Philosophical" (2012) carries out at length some of the ideas Royce briefly sketched in his essay. Romano is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Ursinus College, and served for many years as literary critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among other things, Romano has edited a book of noir literature centered on his native Philadelphia, Philadelphia Noir (Akashic Noir), thus maintaining strong ties to both popular and intellectual culture. In fact, one of the goals of Romano's book is to soften the claimed distinctions among "high", "middle", and "low" cultures.

Romano sets forth the major theme of the book in his title. Far from being an anti-intellectual, dumbed-down, or philistine culture, the United States shows an extraordinary level of thought and activity in the life of the mind. In the course of a wide survey of American thought, inside and outside the Academy, Romano makes some broad claims. He argues in favor of a pragmatic view of American thought as developed by James, Dewey, and Richard Rorty. He also sees, the relatively little-known Greek philosopher Isocrates rather than the familiar Socrates as emblematic of the direction of philosophy in the United States. Romano summarizes the course of his study at the close of his lengthy Introduction:

"In the post-positivist, post-Cold War, pan-Google era in which we live, America the Philosophical -- the country, not the book-- can be seen as a coruscating achievement in the pragmatist project that's been unfolding for centuries. It's a rough-hewn implementation of what truth, ethics, beauty and a host of core philosophical notions must be in an interdependent nation and world village no longer able to ignore variant traditions and conceptual categories of others, but equally unwilling to give up the notion that some beliefs are better than others. Our country is not 'Idiot America' but 'Isocratic America' -- a place where the battle between dogma and doggedness in seeking answers never ends, from sea to shining sea."

Romano explores many divergent thinkers and ideas with clarity, enthusiasm and judgment. He offers expositions of many books together with criticisms. He includes both biography and analysis, as one of Romano's important claims involves the interrelationship of life and thought. It is humbling in itself to read the stories in this book of highly intelligent, driven, and creative individuals. The individuals discussed in the book range from the familiar to the obscure. In its text and in its detailed bibliography, which Romano states is a "mark, in part, of the singular productivity of writers and scholars in America", the book encourages readers to pursue in greater detail the topics and issues it addresses.

The early sections of the book discuss what Romano perhaps unhappily describes as the white male story in philosophy ranging from the early Puritans, through Emerson, followed by the pragmatists Peirce, James, and Dewey, through modern analytic philosophy, including practitioners such as W.V.O. Quine. This section culminates in a discussion of Richard Rorty, a philosophical hero of Romano's book. For Romano, Rorty properly changed the focus of American philosophy from epistemology and the search for foundations and certainty to a sense of shared narratives, dealing with concrete issues, and storytelling. With Rorty, Romano takes much, but not all, of his picture of American philosophy outside the scope of American philosophy departments in universities.

Romano examines philosophical thought in academics from other disciplines including physics, psychology, mathematics, and literary criticism. He examines various non-academic writers, among them Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Philosophy. Bill Moyers finds an honored place in the study as a philosophical broadcaster Romano admires.

Romano offers lengthy discussions of philosophical thinking outside of what he terms the white male establishment among African Americans, women, Native Americans and gays. The individuals and the books he discusses are much more fascinating than the categories in which they are too-readily pigeon-holed. The longest and most varied of these sections is the long chapter on women which ranges over Susan Sontag, Martha Nussbaum, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, and many others. Romano follows his consideration of individuals outside the category of white males with a rather brief, wandering discussion of the "cyber" revolution and its varied impacts on literature, religion, philosophy and more. This discussion of the impact of computers and the Internet is the least convincing section of the book.

In a chapter called "Isocrates: A Man not a Tyro", Romano argues that Socrates, with his search for a dogmatic, fixed form of truth through definitions and verities, is a poor conceptual model for American pragmatic philosophy. He develops the figure of Isocrates instead, for his openness, non-dogmatism and commitment to democracy without falling into relativism. In favoring Isocrates over Socrates and Plato, Romano differs from a new study of the importance of philosophy to American life by the American philosopher, Rebecca Goldstein. In her book, "Plato at the Googleplex", Goldstein argues for the value of the Platonic search for objective truth, even if Plato himself frequently proved mistaken. Romano, through Isocrates, argues that the Socratic/Platonic search is misguided in an American, pragmatic age. He writes:

"Socrates, in the predominant picture of him drawn by Plato, favors discourse that presumes there's a right answer, an eternally valid truth, at the end of the discursive road. Isocrates favors discourse, but thinks, like Rorty and Habermas, that right answers emerge from appropriate public deliberation, from what persuades people at the end of the road."

The concluding sections of this book include a critical discussion of John Rawls famous work of political philosophy, "A Theory of Justice" together with an epilogue praising President Obama as "Philosopher in Chief" for what Romano sees as his erudition, eloquence, moderation, and willingness to engage with all sides of issues.

Romano has written a wide-ranging book about philosophical and intellectual life in the United States and about its continued promise. Readers with an interest in philosophy or in the American experience will benefit from this book. It brings to fruition an idea Josiah Royce had outlined over a century earlier in the essay discussed at the outset of this review.

Robin Friedman