American Philosophy: A Love Story

This is a terrific book, written with zest and insight. Anyone who has been delighted by Sarah Bakewell’s “How To Live” on Montaigne will find his book a worthy companion.John Kaag manages adroitly to weave much together. Yes, the book brings us in contact with some of the giants of American philosophy: Emerson, William James, Charles Peirce, and Josiah Royce. And from them we get doses of insight and wisdom aplenty. At the center of this book, however, are others. The private library of the once-famous Harvard philosopher Ernest Hocking is the setting for the story, as the author fondly works his way through the book collection and discovers, in the process, the fascinating lives of Hocking and his wife, Agnes. Making appearances in this book are such well-known figures as Robert Frost, Pearl S. Buck, and Gabriel Marcel. They, along with Hocking and other classic American philosophers, grappled with the meaning of life, with what makes a life significant. We follow Kaag as he elucidates their perspectives with careful fluency, attentive of strengths but cognizant of stumbles. He ends up trying to bridge the best of pragmatism and existentialism, a worthy endeavor. While Sartre often came up short, as Kaag notes, in the human dimension of solidarity (at least in his early work), Simone de Beauvoir faired much better, especially in her “The Ethics of Ambiguity.”One other strand needs to be noted. In this book, Kaag’s own life stands revealed, in a manner that is never cloying or disruptive. Like the philosophers with whom he spends his time, he is oftentimes a man adrift, searching, unwilling to settle for clichéd thought and existence. He is a person of parts, present but not obtrusive. We come to appreciate his journey and rejoice in its, if not final, then present path.This book will be of interest to anyone thinking about the essential problems of philosophy and life.

John Kaag's book, "American Philosophy: A Love Story" is deeply personal as well as philosophically insightful. Kaag, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, writes for a broad audience and, in words he uses to describe his aim, "successfully bridges the gap between philosophical and creative writing". The book is absorbing and a pleasure to read.Kaag had earned his PhD and in 2008 was half-heartedly engaged in a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard. His long-absent father had just died and his marriage was crumbling. Kaag felt the force of doubts about the value of life that William James had addressed at Harvard in an 1895 lecture, "Is Life Worth Living?" Through a series of accidents, Kaag finds ways to keep going. He finds himself in a large, musty library in the New Hampshire mountains on an estate that belonged to the American philosopher William Ernst Hocking (1873 -- 1966) and was still owned by his family. Hocking was well-known during his lifetime but is little studied today. He was an idealist -- a philosopher who emphasizes the spiritual, mind-dependent character of reality -- influenced heavily by his teacher at Harvard, Josiah Royce I fell in love early with Kaag's book when I found out it was about Hocking. I have read Hocking's most famous book, "The Meaning of God in Human Experience" and reviewed it here on Amazon.The Meaning of God in Human Experience: A Philosophic Study of Religion (Classic Reprint)Kaag wins the trust of the Hocking family and begins a long project cataloguing the books in the philosopher's library, including many rare first editions. He is enamored to see first editions of Descartes, Hobbes, and Kant, but the books owned by the American philosophers whom Kaag has studied, frequently with their handwritten marginalia, win his heart. In the course of his project, Kaag firms up his resolve to get a divorce. He also begins a relationship with a colleague, a philosophical student of Kant, Carol, who assists him in his cataloguing. Over time, the two philosophers fall in love and marry.As the story progresses over three-years, Kaag gradually works out his feelings of guilt, anger, and helplessness over his father and his failed marriage. He also comes to rethink the philosophers he has studied and to understand better what he finds of value in the philosophical enterprise. Kaag discusses many philosophers in the book but the focus is on the great American philosophers, Emerson, Thoreau, James Peirce, Royce, Hocking and on the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel who learned from them in many ways. Kaag states his guiding theme and what he learns from his endeavors at the outset of the book."For American philosophers like James, determining life's worth is, in a very real sense, up to us. Our wills remain the decisive factor in making meaning in a world that continually threatens it. Our past does not have to control us. The risk that life is wholly meaningless is real, but so too is the reward: the ever-present chance to be largely responsible for its worth. The appropriate response to our existential situation is not, at least for James, utter despair or suicide, but rather the repeated, ardent, yearning attempt to make good on life's tenuous possibilities. And the possibilities are out there, often in the most unlikely places."Kaag's blossoming love flows together with the lessons he derives from the American philosophers with their independence, freedom, iconoclasm, and gradually developing sense of community to offset an earlier rugged individualism. In succeeding chapters, he offers short, pointed summaries of some of the thoughts of the philosophers, combining it with reflections on their lives. Biography is an important part of philosophy. Thus, Thoreau, for example, never married, was awkward with women (he suffered a rejection from a woman who had earlier rejected his brother) and is best-known for his short, solitary stay at Walden Pond. Several chapters are named for and develop philosophical texts. Thus, "The Will to Believe" examines James' famous essay on religious faith in the light of his relationship with a young woman. "Evolutionary Love" is the title of an essay by Charles Peirce which, for Kaag, celebrates Peirce's unconventional scandal-ridden second marriage to a woman of uncertain origin and the end of his first unhappy marriage. " Philosophy of Loyalty" is the title of a book by the American idealist philosopher Josiah Royce written at the time of the death of a beloved son. And an earlier chapter "Divine Madness" alludes to Plato and his discussion of love and madness in the "Phaedrus". Kaag finds the works of these philosophers rooted in their life experiences. He sees these thinkers as celebrating the value of love and freedom, as opposed to scientific determinism and solipsistic individualism, in giving life meaning.This book movingly combines personal experience and change with reflection on what makes life valuable -- which is Kaag's understanding of the nature of philosophical thinking. I was glad to read Kaag discussing philosophers I have read and thought about. But the book may be read with pleasure by those without a background in philosophy. The book is a tribute to the power of love and of thought in the search to live a meaningful life in the face of sorrow and difficulty.Robin Friedman

Best book I've read this year. Philosophy and philosophers brought with clarity and sensitivity to life, a stunning rescue of priceless books story, a touching and the often painful memoir, a beautiful love story - and incredible, very readable and absorbing writing. All lyrically bound together. I never knew of Jane Addams - never heard of her. Now I have, and her lost place in history matters as she does. Eight pages about Jane Addams brought tears. The author takes us places to meet people who instantly evoke our involvement, even attachment. Agnes Hocking. I couldn't put this book down, and I didn't want it to end.Reviews are often personal, and this book makes it all the more true. So I'll stop writing. James, Hegel, Royce, Agnes and William Hocking, John Kaag. Thank you for the experience and the book to reread.

John Kaag has written a book of two stories: the personal side story is a chunk of his own life, mainly a failed and miserable marriage and the start of a new and seemingly/hopefully more real, truthful, meaningful, authentic, relationship. The main story is his experience of the cataloging of a major library of philosophical works owned by an important figure in the history of American philosophy. This entails the opportunity for Kaag to talk about both the biographies of major figures in American philosophy as well as their ideas.It is a warm book, verging on being a little too schmaltzy at times, but I am a bit overly cynical so you can ignore that criticism if you want to. This book is also good enough to make me want to go on to read Kaag’s book on Nietzsche.

A wonderful, wonderful book. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is very well written and in a personal style. but at the same time you learn a lot about the great time and minds of american philsophy: Pierce, James, Royce, Dewey etc. Strongly recommended!

I enjoyed discovering more about the roots of American philosophy. The story takes a long, long time to develop. It would benefit from a quicker pace.

Yes it does.

Fascinating as a tour of philosophy, the lives of interesting people, and as a romance.

Too many ideas just thrown about within context of academic pretentiousness. Hope the author comes to learn more about life, himself and his wife and child

副題に A Love Story とあるように、哲学書としては一風変わった書き方がされていますが、今後、ルイ・メナンドの『メタフィジカル・クラブ：米国100年の精神史』（野口良平・那須耕介・石井素子訳, みすず書房, 2011年）やコーネル・ウェストの『哲学を回避するアメリカ知識人：プラグマティズムの系譜』（村山淳彦・堀智弘・権田建二訳, 未来社, 2014年）などと並ぶ、アメリカ思想史・哲学の重要文献になると思います。個々の哲学者たちの思想の内容について今挙げた２冊ほど掘り下げているわけではありませんが、それらとは違った部分に光をあてているという点で、ユニークかつ重要です。著者ジョン・カーグはマサチューセッツ大学ローウェル校の哲学科の教授です。本書は彼が奥さんとの問題などで鬱々としているとき、ハーバード大学の哲学者ウィリアム・アーネスト・ホッキング（William Ernest Hocking, 1873-1966）が自分の図書コレクションを収蔵するために建てた図書館（ニュー・ハンプシャー州にあるそうです）に偶然入ることを許され、半分うち捨てられたようになっていたコレクションのカタログづくりをするようになったところから書き起こされます。カタログづくりの過程と、著者の苦労や苦悩、ホッキングのコレクションにまつわる個人的な、また理論的な話が絡み合いながら話は進みます。副題の a love story は、a memoir くらいにしておくと無難なのでしょうが、それよりは著者の内面に踏み込んでいるので、やはり a love story にせざるを得なかったのでしょうか。アメリカの哲学というと経験論の伝統に立つプラグマティズムが有名ですが、ホッキングは、ある意味、経験論の対極にある観念論の伝統を引く人です。そのホッキングに関連する人や本を見ることで、アメリカ哲学には一般に知られている以上に豊かな哲学的思索の伝統がある（あった）ことが分かります。回顧録のような書き方をしてあって、読みやすいです（哲学的な関心や基礎知識が全くない人が読むのはさすがに難しいですが）。それでいて、ものすごい学識が基礎にありますし、理論的な話も決してドライなテクニカルにすぎるものではない、よく書かれている本だと思います。