Transcendental naturalism and skeptical materialism: legacy paradigms in Emerson, Santayana, and Peirce

David A. Dilworth

doi:10.23925/2316-5278.2022v23i1:e59920

Authors

David A. Dilworth Philosophy Department, Stony Brook University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/2316-5278.2022v23i1:e59920

Abstract

The article begins with a comparative hermeneutic of the incongruent legacy worldviews of Emerson’s transcendentalism and Santayana’s skeptical materialism, proceeds on to Peirce’s convergence with Emerson’s transcendentalism in a neo- Neoplatonic and neo-Aristotelian configuration, with particular reference to the sweep of the Cambridge Conference Lectures of 1898.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

ABBOT, Francis Ellingwood. Scientific Theism. Cambridge: University Press: John Wilson and Son, 1885.

ARISTOTLE. Nicomachean Ethics. translated with introduction and glossary by Terrence Irwin. Second ed., Hackett Publishing Co., 1999.

ARMSTRONG, A. Hilary. The Apprehension of Divinity in the Self and Cosmos in Plotinus. In: HARRIS, R. B. (ed.). The Significance of Neoplatonism. New York: SUNY Press, 1976.

ATKIN. Albert. Peirce’s Architectonic of the Sciences. Available in: https://iep.utm.edu/peirce- ar/#SH3c (no date).

BEIERWALTES, Werner. The Legacy of Neoplatonism in F. W. J. Schelling’s Thought. In- ternational Journal of Philosophical Studies, v. 10, n. 4, p. 393-428, 2010. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1080/09672550210167414.

BRANHAM, R. et al. The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. Berkely: University of California Press, 1996.

CHARDIN, T. The Phenomenon of Man, Transl. Bernard Wall with introduction by Julian Huxley. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1955.

DILLON, John; GERSON, L. P. (ed.). Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings. Indianapo- lis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2004.

DILWORTH, David A. Peirce’s Concise Review of Santayana’s The Life of Reason. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, v. 55, n. 1, p. 20-38, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/tranchar- peirsoc.55.1.02.

DILWORTH, David A. Peirce’s Last Philosophic Will and Testament: Uberty in the Logic of Ins- tinctive Reasoning. Cognitio: Revista de Filosofia, v. 16, n. 2, p. 233-258, 2015.

DILWORTH, David A. Santayana’s Critique of Modernity and His Repression of Emerson. Overheard in Seville: Bulletin of the Santayana Society, n. 17, p. 125-145. 2019. DOI: https://doi. org/10.5840/santayana2019373715.

EISELEY, Loren. Eiseley: Collected Essays on Evolution, Nature, and the Cosmos. In: CRONON, W. (ed.). Volume One: The Immense Journey, The Firmament of Time, The Unexpected Universe, Uncollected Prose; Volume Two: The Unexpected Universe, The Night Country, and 14 essays from The Star Thrower. New York: The Library of America, 2016.

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Essays and Lectures: “Plato; or, The Philosopher” and “Montaigne: or, The Skeptic”. In: Representative Men: Seven Lectures (1850). New York: The Library of America, 1983.

ERIGUINA, John Scotus. John the Scot: Periphyseon, on the Division of Nature. Trans. Myra L. Uhlfeder. Introduction by Jean A. Potter. The Library of Liberal Arts, 1976.

FEGHELM. Dagmar. I, Raphael. trans. By: Ishbel Flett and Paul Aston. New York: Prestel Pu- blishing, 2004.

FINDLAY, J. N. The Neoplatonism of Plato. In: HARRIS, R. B. (ed.). The Significance of Neopla- tonism. New York: SUNY Press, 1976.

FRANKS, Paul. Peirce’s “Schelling-Fashioned Idealism” and “the Monstrous Mysticism of the East”. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, v. 23, n. 4, p. 732-755, 2015. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1057686.

GERSH, Stephen (ed.). Plotinus’ Legacy: The Transformation of Platonism from the Renaissance to the Modern Era. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

GUARDIANO, Nickolas L. Charles S. Peirce’s New England Neighbors and Embrace of Transcen- dentalism. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, v. 53, n. 2, p. 216-245, 2017. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.53.2.03.

GUARDIANO, Nickolas L. Critical Notice of Joseph Urbas, The Philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy [Online], XIII-2, 2021, con- nection on 15 June 2022.

HARRIS, R. B. (ed.). The Significance of Neoplatonism. Norfolk, Va.: International Society of Ne- oplatonic Studies, Old Dominion University, 1976.

HUME, David. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. BEAUCHAMP, T. L. (ed.). Ox- ford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

IBRI, Ivo Assad. Kosmos Noetos: The Metaphysical Architecture of Charles S. Pierce (English edition). Springer, 2017.

IBRI, Ivo Assad. Sementes de Pragmatismo na Contemporaneidade: Homagen a Ivo Assad Ibri. GHIZZI, E. et al. (ed.). San Paulo: FiloCzar, 2018.

IBRI, Ivo Assad. Semiótica e Pragmatismo: Interfaces Téoricas. Vol. 1. Marília: Oficina Universi- tária; São Paulo: FiloCzar, 2020.

IBRI, Ivo Assad. Semiótica e Pragmatismo: Interfaces Téoricas. Vol. 2. Marília: Oficina Universi- tária; São Paulo: FiloCzar, 2021.

INNIS, Robert E. Peirce’s Aesthetics and the “Way of Beauty”. In: GHIZZI, E. et al. (ed.). Sementes de Pragmatismo na Contemporaneidade: Homagen a Ivo Assad Ibri. San Paulo: FiloCzar, 2018.

KIM, Alan. Brill’s Companion to German Platonism. KIM, Alan (ed.). Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2019.

LEINKAUF, Thomas. Schelling and Plotinus. In: GERSH, S. (ed.). Plotinus’ Legacy: The Transfor- mation of Platonism from the Renaissance to the Modern Era. Trans. Stephen Gersh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

MARTINO, Isabella. An Analysis of Plotinus’s Mysticism in Light of Emerson’s Nature. Indepen- dent Reading and MA program paper: The Philosophy Department, SUNY Stony Brook Univer- sity, 2022.

MARTINO, Isabella. Commentary on “The Over-Soul” (First Series, 1841.). Independent readings MA program paper: The Philosophy Department, SUNY Stony Brook University, 2022.

MCCORMICK, John. George Santayana: A Biography. New York: Paragon House, 1988.

MEREDITH, Anthony. Later Philosophy [Plotinus]. In: BOARDMAN, J. et al. (ed.). The Oxford History of the Roman World. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1986.

MOORE, Matthew. Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Writings: Charles S. Peirce. Blooming- ton, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2010.

MORRIS, Simon Conway. From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution. West Conshohochen, PA: Templeton Press, 2022.

MURPHEY, Murray. The Development of Peirce’s Philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc, 1961.

PATRIDES, C. A. (ed.) The Cambridge Platonists. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1970.

PEIRCE, Benjamin. Ideality in the Physical Sciences. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1881.

PEIRCE, Charles Sanders. Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Writings. MOORE, M. E. (ed.). Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2010.

PEIRCE, Charles Sanders. Reasoning and the Logic of Things: The Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898. KETNER, K. L.; PUTNAM, H. (ed.). Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1992.

PLOTINUS. The Essential Plotinus: Representative Treatises from the Enneads. Elmer O’BRIEN, E. (ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., Inc., 1964.

POLANYI, Michael. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press, 1958.

POLLEY, Owen. Announcing Undiscovered Regions of Thought: Emersonian Transcendentalism in Benjamin Peirce. Emerson Society Papers, v. 33, n. 1, p. 1-7, Spring 2022.

POLLEY, Owen. Ideal-Realism: Its Roots in Plotinus and Blossoming in Peirce. Honors Thesis, Philosophy Department, SUNY Stony Brook University, Spring 2022.

POTTER, Jean A. “Introduction” to John the Scot: Periphyseon: on the Division of Nature. The Library of Liberal Arts, 1976.

POWICKE, Frederick J. The Cambridge Platonists: A Study. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1926.

RAPOSA, Michael. Peirce’s Philosophy of Religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. SANTAYANA, George. A General Confession; Apologia pro Mente Sua. In: SCHILPP, P. A. (ed.).

The Philosophy of George Santayana. New York: Open Court, 1991.

SANTAYANA, George. Scepticism and Animal Faith. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923.

SAVAN, David. An Introduction to C. S. Peirce’s Full System of Semeiotic. Monograph Series of the Toronto Semeiotic Circle, Victoria College of the University of Toronto, Number 1, 1987.

SCHELLING, F. W. J. Bruno, or On the Natural and the Divine Principles of Things. Edited with an introduction by Michael J. Vater. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.

SCHELLING, F. W. J. The Ages of the World (1811). Translated with an introduction by Joseph P. Lawrence. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.

SCHELLING, F. W. J. The Abyss of Freedom / Ages of the World. An essay by Slavoj Zizek and the complete text of Schelling’s Die Weltalter (second draft, 1813), translated by Judith Norman. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997.

SCHELLING, F. W. J. The Ages of the World (3rd version, c. 1815), translated with an introduction by Jason M. Wirth. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

SCHILLER, Friedrich von. Anmut und Würde (Grace and Dignity, 1793). trans. George Gregory. Schiller Institute, Inc., 1992.

STEINER, Rudolph. Nature’s Open Secret: Introduction to Goethe’s Scientific Writings. Trans. John Barnes and Mado Spiegler, with an Essay on Participatory Science by John Barnes. Anthopo- sophic Press, 2000.

TOPA, Alessandro. Graphic instinct: the account of graphic instinct: the account of rhetorical action and its instinctive roots in Peirce’s classification of practical sciences. Cognitio: Revista de Filo- sofia, v. 21, n. 1, p. 132-151, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23925/2316-5278.2020v21i1p132-151.

URBAS, Joseph. The Philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Rutledge, 2021.

VATER, Michael J. Schelling’s Neoplatonic System-Notion: ‘Ineinsbildung’ and Temporal Unfol- ding. In: R. Baines HARRIS, R. B. (ed.). The Significance of Neoplatonism. Norfolk, Va.: Interna- tional Society of Neoplatonic Studies, Old Dominion University, 1976.

WALLIS, Richard T. NOUS as Experience. In: HARRIS, R. B. (ed.). The Significance of Neoplato- nism. Norfolk, Va.: International Society of Neoplatonic Studies, Old Dominion University, 1976.

WAYNE, Tiffany K, (ed.). Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2010.

WIRTH, Jason M. “Translator’s Introduction” to F. W. J. Schelling, The Ages of the World, (Frag- ment) From the handwritten remains, third edition c. 1815. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.