American Realism in the Early Twentieth Century

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Matthias Neuber
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 453466855

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

In contrast to American pragmatism, American philosophical realism is not very well researched. A comprehensive book-length treatment of American realism is still a desideratum. Having had its heyday during the first four decades of the twentieth century, the American realist movement came along in several different stages and versions, the most salient being a) direct realism, b) critical realism, and c) functional realism. It was the principal aim of my project to explore the complex interrelation between these three varieties. The central working hypothesis was that American realism revolved around the concept of mental representation. I attempted to show that direct realism, as it were, defined itself by explicitly rejecting the concept of mental representation, whereas critical and functional realism, though in deep agreement with that concept, came to significantly different conclusions concerning its explanatory role in epistemology. To support this claim, I focused on the American realists' respective accounts of perception, consciousness, and philosophy in general. Referring to the principal works of Ralph Barton Perry (1876 – 1957), William Pepperrell Montague (1873 – 1953), Edward Gleason Spaulding (1873 – 1940), Edwin B. Holt (1873 – 1946), C. A. Strong (1862 – 1940), George Santayana (1863 – 1952), Roy Wood Sellars (1880 – 1973), and John Elof Boodin (1869 – 1950), an attempt was made to determine the characteristic features and differences between the diverse realist approaches. Among the questions pursued, the following two were decisive: 1) How was American realism related to American pragmatism, specifically to Willam James' and John Dewey's critical attitudes toward the late nineteenth-century American idealist movement around Josiah Royce? 2) At what point exactly did direct, critical, and functional realism begin to separate in relation to the prevailing epistemological questions of perception and consciousness? In terms of method, the project aimed at a minute historical reconstruction, partly based on hitherto unknown archival sources, combined with a critical examination of the crucial arguments advanced by the defenders of the particular realist currents. Moreover, substantial contextualization was provided by accounting for the scientific environment of American realism, especially by exploring the American realists' reception of both behaviorist and Gestalt psychology, on the one hand, and evolutionary biology, on the other. The expected overall gain of the project was a reliable comparative survey of one of the most revealing programmatic episodes in the history of American philosophy. Connections with current discussions in epistemology and the philosophy of mind were addressed as well. Furthermore, some broader lessons for the history of early twentieth-century philosophy were drawn, particularly concerning the European roots of American realism in late nineteenth-century German-speaking philosophy.

Publications

• July 16, 2021:
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Idealismus, „neuer“ Realismus und die Anfänge der analytischen Philosophie in den Vereinigten Staaten. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 105(4), 648-684.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• In Praise of Externalism? Spaulding, Dewey, and the Logic of Relations. Metaphysica, 23(2), 123-144.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• June 22, 2022:
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Perry, the ‘Ego-Centric Predicament’, and the Rise of Analytic Philosophy in the United States. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 10(1), 185-204.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Review of Guido Karl Tamponi, George Santayana: Eine materialistische Theorie der Vita Contemplativa. In: Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 76:463-466.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• What We Talk About When We Talk About This Being Blue. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XIV(1).
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• August 17, 2023:
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• August 9, 2023:
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• July 13, 2023:
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Perception in Plato’s Heaven?. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XV(2).
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Review of Andreas Vrahimis, Bergsonism and the History of Analytic Philosophy. In: Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 77:101-105.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Russell and American Realism. Topoi, 43(1), 127-133.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Special Relativity from the Viewpoint of R. W. Sellars’ The Philosophy of Physical Realism. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 183-200. Springer International Publishing.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Direct Realism: Historical and Systematic Perspectives. Special Issue Topoi.
  Neuber, Matthias & Ehmann, Alexander
  
• Review of Alois Riehl, Der philosophische Kritizismus und seine Bedeutung für die positive Wissenschaft. In: Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 78:168-171.
  Neuber, Matthias
  
• Von der Empfindung zum Ding an sich – Idealismus-Kritik bei Kant und Riehl (mit einem Ausblick auf den amerikanischen Realismus des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts). Kant-Studien, 115(2), 228-256.
  Neuber, Matthias