Ralph Barton Perry - American Philosophy in The First Decade of The Twentieth Century

Revue Internationale de Philosophie
American Philosophy in the First Decade of the Twentieth Century

Author(s): Ralph Barton Perry
Source: Revue Internationale de Philosophie, Vol. 1, No. 3 (15 AVRIL 1939), pp. 423-443
Published by: Revue Internationale de Philosophie
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American
in
the
First
Philosophy
of
Decade
the
Twentieth
Perry
Barton
by Ralph
Century
An attempt to summarize
the thought of the recent past
is beset with many pitfalls.
Its recency makes it impossible
to
The historian is compelled
rely on any stabilized perspective.
for the first time
to formulate
those
comparative
judgments
the
of
which,
by
judgments
"
"
will eventually
define the
view.
other historians,
accepted
If the period in question
with the youth
to coincide
happens
he will invest it with a revolutionary
of the historian,
signi
of his own
ficance that cannot fail to reflect the idealization
when
heroic
confirmed
and
corrected
days.
Bliss
But
was
to
be
it in that dawn
was
young
very
to be alive,
heaven!
are always aspects of novelty in any given period of

and if it so
that the historian
human
thought,
happens
began in that period to think for himself, he will invest its
There is a temptation,
innovations
with the marks of destiny.
There
furthermore, to think by centuries, and to suppose that a dif

than a
1899 and 1900 is more momentous
ference between
Above all, it is unjust to
difference between 1898 and 1899.
as though they belonged to schools and
deal with philosophers
can adequately
No amount of interpellation
tendencies.
pro
"
thinker
whose
vide for the individual
unclassifiables,"
ideas
may
not appear
at all
in a summary
disparaged.
inevitably
Of all these and other difficulties
cannot
hope
to
overcome
them.
such
as this,
I am fully aware,
Nevertheless,
any
are
and
estimate,
424
RALPH
BARTON
PERRY
however
is better than a tedious recital of names

subjective,
at
dates, for it will reveal what the recent past means,
least to one man who has lived through it, survived it, and
absorbed
of it into his present thinking.
If, as is
something
and
others disagree,
then they can serve history best,
inevitable,
not by charging
me with bias, but by setting forth in their
own behalf what that same past means to them.
In
the significance
of American
judging
philosophy
during the initial decade of the present century I shall consider
first its relation to its own past, what tendencies
did it
what novelties did it initiate, and how did these two
continue,
affect one another?
I shall
aspects of tradition and innovation
in
then turn,
the second place, to the even more difficult task
of estimating this period by the standards of posterity, how
far have
is
its innovations
characteristic
taken
of present
root and borne

thought
can
be
fruit, what that

traced to their
influence?
It is fortunate
for my task that during the first decade of

century America entertained in its midst a visitor
the twentieth
from
to become
familiar
Mars, who remained
long enough
the scene, but who had his home in another planet and
was therefore qualified to view that scene with a shrewd aloof
with
ness.
At the close
wrote
Santayana
"
The
Genteel
of the decade, having concluded

his visit,
his famous bread and butter letter, entitled
Tradition
in American
".
He
Philosophy
but candidly,
that it had been char
pointed out, graciously
acteristic of America that its philosophy
was divided from its
"
"
"
life.
The truth is,
he said,
that one-half of the American
that not occupied
in practical
mind,
affairs, has
intensely
I will not say high-and-dry,

but slightly becalmed;
remained,
it has floated gently in the back-water,
in
while, alongside,
invention
and industry and social organisation,
the other half
"
of the mind was leaping
down a sort of Niagara
".
Rapids
Our commentator
then went on to show that the philoso
half of the American
mind had been fructified from
phical
had not
American
abroad,
life, but had adopted
expressed
and adapted its ideas from European
sources.
And the latest
of these importations
was transcendentalism,
from Emerson
to
Royce.
1 Winds
Trancendentalism
of Doctrine,
1913,
was
p.
made
in
Germany,
188.
but
AMERICAN
and partly by pre-established

har
by reinterpretation
it suited well.
It flattered the American
sense of
partly
mony,
creative
it harmonized
with American
optimism,
in the face of the facts, enabling
science
power,
it saved
religion
faith to live peacefully
Having
tayana then
described
and
and
together.
the established
American
piety, San
to a contemporary
of
innovation,
spirit
"
its most illustrious
William
exponent.
"
has given some rude shocks to this [gen
testified
and pointed
to
"
he said,
James,
"
teel] tradition.
Santayana's
life, and
ican
425
PHILOSOPHY
account
his
in Amer
of the place of philosophy
of the first decade of the
characterization
and I shall
correct;
present century is, I think, substantially
take it as the key to the relations of that decade with its own
past.
A broader view of the cultural history of America discloses
tradition was not the
the fact that the genteel philosophical
to
be
shocked
at
this
time.
If we lengthen the
tradition
only
the last decade of the nineteenth
period to embrace
century
together with the pre-war years of the twentieth, it is evident
and social thinking
that the political,
which had
economic,
and
had
a
hitherto been habitual,
character of ortho
acquired
American
history was being
of rigorous
The
fact-finding.
and hero-worship
shifted from patriotism
to a
emphasis
There was less
candid exposure of the sordid and seamy side.
doxy, was rudely challenged.
rewritten after a new model
idealism
and
more economics.
Literature depicted the Amer
and abundant
not as the equal fellowship
oppor
in
vul
free
but
terms
of
of
men,
poverty, hardship,
tunity
beneath
the
or
boredom.
Critics
searched
artist's
pro
garity,
scene
ican
fessed
creed
and
his
exposed
laissez-faire
flicts.
less
seemly
had
subterranean
hitherto
been
con
identified
Capitalistic
of liberty, self-improvement,
and general
the gospel
it was
Now to the horror of its faithful exponents
prosperity.
with
condemned
as
of which
cracy,
swerable
system
America
of
monopoly
had
hitherto
and
greed.
deemed
Even
demo
itself the unan
realization,
and, to the rest of
proof, the triumphant
the world, the enviable
and exemplary
embodiment,
began
to find its critics, even in America.
Thus on every hand
American
piety was challenged,
both by sincere
reformers,
and
426
RALPH
BARTON
PERRY
by camp followers who obtained

publicity
faction from the effect of disillusionment.
and
sadistic
satis
The revolt against philosophical

piety was thus part of a
with the opening
of
general revolt which appears to coincide
the present century.
American
had
itself
philosophical
piety
a succession
of phases.
Colonial
through
passed
piety was
identical
with
Protestant
and above
all
orthodoxy
from contemporary
old England
by the settlers of New England.
During the eighteenth century
the political beliefs and sentiments were crystallized
under the
with the Puritanism
Christian
brought
But it was necessary

far-flung influence of the Enlightenment.
to find some way of sterilizing
this radical
which
ideology,
had led some of its more advanced
to
deism
not
exponents
only
but even
of atheism.
to the negations
This safe and whole
form of the gospel of the Enlightenment
was found in
the Scottish philosophy
of common
sense, which both com
some
mended
states,
itself to the Presbyterian

clergy of the Middle Atlantic
was suited to popular
This philo
consumption.
was combined
with a shallow
of Kant,
interpretation
and
sophy
the ready-made
of common
sense being identi
assumptions
fied with the a priori forms of intuition, categories,
and ideals
of
reason.
This
the
eclectic
philosophy
was succeeded
after the middle
of
nineteenth
which,
waves.
century
by the post-Kantian
metaphysics,
in America
as well as in England,
arrived in two
The first was a blend of philosophical
and literary
with
sufficiently vague to be readily combined
that arise
tradition, so that by the anachronisms
from a tendency to identify all the sanctions
of piety, Knigs
romanticism,
the Platonic
was
confused
with Athens and even with Jerusalem.
in
and
in America
Emerson
were the great
Carlyle
England
of
this
which
was
in
turn
succeeded
protagonists
gospel,
by
the direct and rigorous study of Hegel, represented by J. H. Stir
and in the United States by William
T. Harris.
ling in England
berg
had
By the end of the nineteenth
century this last movement
and
the
United
and
under
the
name
pervaded
England
States,
"
"
taught
of
idealism
constituted the reigning philosophy,
in the universities,
uses by the Protestant
put to apologetic
and relied on generally
to provide
an answer
to
clergy,
science
dition.
and
a secular
German
of religious
justification
idealism was not transplanted
and
moral
to English
tra
and
AMERICAN
soil without
American
both
Kant,
with.
modification.
and
to empiricism
427
PHILOSOPHY
Concessions
to individualism.
were
made
But the names
of
and Hegel were the names to conjure

Schelling,
thinkers were anointed as the latest members of
Fichte,
These
the legitimate philosophical

dynasty which sprang from Soc
was conceived
as a somewhat
dis
rates.
British empiricism
graceful episode which owed its importance
only to the moral
Hume was the reductio ad absurdum
of
it pointed.
answered
had
short-circuited
and
Hume,
Kant, having
Locke,
and resumed
the great suc
the whole
movement
empirical
which
after Leibnitz.
cession
the rle of a graduate

student of philoso
and stations oneself in any American
oneself to be a serious reader hoping
If one assumes
phy in the year 1905,

university, or imagines
to profit by the deeper wisdom of that day, what is the appear

heavens?
There can be no doubt of
ance of the intellectual
their being
ism.
The
Kantian
memories
James
the
and galaxies
by the luminaries
of
common
sense
philosophy
dominated
Scottish
of ideal
with
its
in the
forgotten or embalmed
graftings is already
Noah Porter had died in 1892 and
of older men.
in 1894.
McCosh
mantle
of
Alexander
at
McCosh
Princeton.
in 1900
was
Ormond
T.
His
and
had
assumed
Foundation
he was
elected
of
Pres
Knowledge
published
ident of this Association
as late as 1903, but he was already
The glory of
in 1905 recognized
as an afterglow of the past.
and of Carlyle's
of New England
transcendentalism,
Emerson,
The great teachers of
romantic gospel had likewise departed.
exception men of the new ideal
their minds at the fountain
nourished
the time were almost

istic
head,
without
group who had

on the texts of Kant and his successors.
George Sylvester
and
teacher
of Dewey
of
and
Johns
Morris,
Michigan
Hopkins,
from the
afforded
an
of
the
evolution
and Boy ce,
example
"
sense to a
belief in the
of common
Scottish
philosophy
'
'
demonstrated
He
had
which
1
1930,
Quoted
18.
of the
substance
of German
idealism
in 1899.
died
Philosophy
W. T. Harris,
ism
truth
had
the Journal
of Speculative
Although
in 1893, its author,
its last number
The seeds of Hegelian
still active in 1905.
issued
was
he had
from
helped
John
Dewiv,
to plant
had
Contemporary
yielded
American
an
abundant
Philosophy,
II,
428
RALPH
Charles
crop.
E.
Garman
of Amherst
graduates
BARTON
PERRY
and
instructed
from 1881 to 1907.
edified
the under
R. M. Wenley
was
at Michigan,
John Watson
at Queens
University,
G. H. Howison
had
Kingston, and Mary Calkins at Wellesley.
been the most notable intellectual
influence on the California
teaching
coast
since
1884, and
istic version of Hegel
in 1901
he had
set forth his individual
under the title of The Limits of Evolu

Transitional
Eras in Thought
had
Armstrong's
in
At
1904.
J.
G.
Schurman
had
been
Cornell,
appeared
active since 1886 and had founded the Sage School
of Philo
His
James
Edwin
was
now
successor,
sophy.
Creighton,
tion.
A.
C.
a wide and profound influence

not only upon his
exercising
students at Cornell, but, through his editorship
of The Philo
who
Review,
sophical
upon younger
philosophers
depended
on this organ both for the reception and for the transmission
of their
ideas.
was in many respects
a typical
Creighton
to the Kantian
figure of the period, in his staunch allegiance
in his intellectual
and in his manner
of
gospel,
austerity,
if
somewhat
and
sometimes
admon
kindly,
prudish,
fatherly
ition to philosophical
At Harvard George Herbert
fledglings.
was the acknowledged'
master in the art of teaching,
Palmer
and if he published
little he knew
how to spread his influence

an
and
skill in placing
through personal contact,
unparalleled
in
his students
He was perhaps the most
strategic positions.
"
of the "genteel
tradition,
perfect epitome
being a puritan
touched
Scottish
realism
the
inheritance,
by
by
through
influence
of his older
Francis Bowen,
converted to
colleague,
William
T.
Harris
and
Edward
and trans
Hegel by
Caird,
into
muting these elements with delicately modulated
eloquence
1
a polished,
and
idealism.
edifying
irresistibly
plausible
Josiah
Royce was at the height of his power, his masterpiece,

The World and the Individual,
in 1901.
having been completed
The importance
of Royce as the champion
of idealism
lay in
the fact that, while he was at heart and by inheritance
of Protestant
he was free from
exponent
Christianity,
trace of clericalism;
in the fact that although
he owed
central
doctrines
illustrated
of pioneer
1 Cf.
to
Santayana's
stock and
Contemporary
Kant
and
the
German
romantics,
and
an
any
his
thus
he was
theory of European
dependence,
made large concessions
to the American
American
Philosophy,
1930,
I,
20.
AMERICAN
429
PHILOSOPHY
and in the fact that, while he never

gospel of individualism;
forsook the central tenets of idealism,
he was one of the first
of the new logic and scientific
heralds
and
methodology,
clothed his essential piety in a dialectic and historical learning
so resourceful
as to anticipate
the awakening
critical
demands
of his students.
the idealistic
from, but allied
with,
Distinguishable
is the group variously
denominated
as spiritualistic
or personal
idealism,
personalism,
many of whose adherents
school,
were
directly or indirectly
attempt to unite idealism
influenced
sented
an
by Lotze.
They repre
with an individualistic
The chief American disciple of Lotze, and

empiricism.
Lotze-like
Wundt, was George Trumbull
Ladd, whose
in
was
1905,
sophy of Religion,
published
preceded by
and of Conduct.
of Knowledge,
losophy
of Mind,
to this group were Borden P. Bowne,
contributed
to the contemporary
(1908)
belonging
sonalism
which
has adopted this title as its name, and

men DeWitt H. Parker, who describes himself
"
cal idealist.
who in 1895 made a
Howison,
1
on Royce's Absolute,
should be remembered
of the
Philo
a Phi
Others
whose
Per
movement
among younger
"
as an
empiri
vigorous attack
in this context.
"
This group formed an intermediate
zone between the
genteel
"
tradition
and the innovators.
It was penetrated
from the
and from the left by James
right by idealists such as Howison
and Schiller.
It might, of course,
be classed,
as a centrist
I prefer,
right wing of the innovators.
if
however, to describe it as the left wing of idealism,
because,
it did not accept either the a priorism
or the absolutism
of
or
group,
as
the
the more orthodox
and
formulated
idealists, it was avowedly

spiritualistic
a metaphysics
which gave to the conscious
life of man the central place in the universe.
and
moral
If in this same
consider
American
year, 1905, we look towards Europe and

which came within the horizon of the
the philosophy
student
and
of idealism
ponderance
and John
Wallace,
In England
scene.
Caird
T.
H.
de grce
1 The
of God,
same
overwhelming
pre
Adamson,
William
Robert
only recently passed from the

Green had died in 1882, but his
was generally
to that misguided
Conception
the
had
of Hume
edilion
coup
reader,
is evident.
supposed
empiricist,
to have
and
given the
his Prolego
1897.
RALPH
430
BARTON
PERRY
was perhaps the most widely

mena, published
posthumously,
read textbook in ethics.
Jowett, who saw antiquity
through
Kantian
set
the
tone
at
Oxford.
James
Seth's
spectacles,
Ethical
in 1894;
and J. S. Mackenzie's
appeared
in 1902.
Outlines of Metaphysics
J. E. M. McTaggart was pass
and his
ing through the Hegelian
phase of his development,
Principles
influence
at Trinity College,
had not yet been
Cambridge,
that
of
G.
E.
Moore.
Richard
B. Haldane
had
by
superseded
in 1903 published
his Pathway
to Reality.
J. H. Muirhead,
teachers
at
Henry Jones were influential
E Taylor,
and
The Scotch universities
McGill, and Glasgow.
Birmingham,
had gone over wholly and for many years to come to that Kant
and Hegelianism
ianism
for which,
as we have seen, the
influence
of the school of Reid had prepared
so favorable
a
A.
soil.
But from the American
figures
in
the
Caird,
who
British
distance
the most
of the
philosophy
Jowett at Balliol
commanding
were Edward
day
in 1893, and
and Bernard Bosanquet.
succeeded
the two
F. H. Bradley
Caird's
of the Philosophy
of Kant had appeared in 1877,
"
"
and his brochure on
Idealism and the Theory of Knowledge
private scholars,
Critical Account
in 1903.
Bosanquet's
Logic had been published
his monumental
work on Individuality
and Value
in 1912.
perhaps
was an
in 1888, and
was to appear
Bradley, whose restrained and impersonal

irony was
the supreme
manifestation
of idealistic
arrogance,
His Logic had been published
in
impressive
figure.
1883 and his Appearance

and Reality, which
saw the light
in 1893, was regarded
as the best existing text by which to
cure the student of his vulgar dogmatism
and naive empiri
cism.
John Stuart Mill had died in 1877, and although Huxley
had lived to 1895 and
in academic
Herbert
Spencer to 1902, their influence

circles was small.
They were
and
professional
as
despised
to the unregenerate
and
neglected
belonging
heathen who had failed to see the light in the East (East Prus
sia) . The influence of Henry Sidgwick

lay still in the future.
The idealists
in
and their works
reigned supreme
England,
were
read
doctrinal
in
America
But American
to
the
more
with
provincial
as
deference
well
as
assent.
Germany
philosophers
where
of youthful
years
not only the exhausting
many
study.
textual
of 1905 looked
of
the
The
elders
beyond
had
Germany
study of Kant
England
spent
of 1905
and
one
or
meant
his follow
AMERICAN
431
PHILOSOPHY
of commentary
to commentary
: it
ers, and the adding
neo
school
of neo-Kantians,
meant the rise of a vigorous
It meant Hermann
Cohen and
and neo-Hegelians.
Fichteans,
Cohen, whose Logik der
Natorp at Marburg : Hermann
had appeared in 1902, followed by his Ethik
reinen Erkenntnis
des reinen Willens in 1904;
of
Natorp, whose Kantianization
in 1903.
Platos Ideenlehre
was published
It meant Windel
Paul
and
at Freiburg
and Heidelberg
: Windelband,
der Philosophie
afforded
of whose Geschichte
Ph. D., and whose Logik and
a favorite route to the American
band
Rickert
the translation
und seine Weltanschauung

were fresh from
"
"
of Baden
was directly represented
School
Two other names should
by Hugo Munsterberg.
Eucken
and
Benedetto Croce.
The
Rudolf
be mentioned
here,
was translated
into English
in
former's Lebensanschauungen
Immanuel
Kant
the press.
in America
This
a wide popular
is
Living and What is
distinguished
and
the
Dead of the Philosophy
of Hegel (1912)
transplanted
soil of Italy.
His Logic, Aesthetics
former to the congenial
and
1909
with
his
works
other
exercised
What
Croce
influence.
the
English
through
were
added
to
promptly
energetic discipleship
in
of
Ernst
the idealistic corpus.
Here, too, naturalism,
spite
which had been translated into
Haeckel's
Weltrathsel,
popular
and
other
works
were
translated
of Ainslie
English
in 1900, was despised
Hermann
Lotze
was
into
and
and rejected
another
matter.
in academic
circles.
had
trans
He
been
in 1884.
His Microcosmus
had an eclectic
into English
of
realism
and
of monadistic
a strain
character,
empirical
on faith and value,
which
and an emphasis
individualism,
lated
set its author
apart from the main current of

to the vogue in America
and contributed
"
which
has been mentioned
personalism
and his influence
idealistic orthodoxy,
"
of that
spiritualistic
above.
In
order
to
understand
the
rle
of
the
innovators
one
must
their temper of mind as well as their doctrine, each

The inno
to established
tradition.
explicitly opposed
understand
being
vators
not only the logic of their

to overcome
were obliged
but their prestige and an intellectual
contemporaries,
inertia derived from habit, academic
authority, and alliance
to be
with both lay and clerical piety.
They felt themselves
elder
not only rejected but disapproved.

They attacked, therefore,
not altogether
free from malice or
with a certain militancy,
432
RALPH
PERRY
BARTON
and resorted
to polemical
tactics
which
now
impishness,
than
reflect
a
rather
a
pure
revolutionary
mentality
appear to
temper of judicious
philosophizing.
In 1905
the world
the innovators
to arouse
that
significant
article entitled
"
in
had
the idealists
already made enough

to defensive measures.
1904
It is
have published
"
and that in
an
Bradley
the
Truth and Practice,
Address before the American
Presidential
On
should
stir in
year Boyce's
should
have discussed
Association
the relation
Philosophical
"
"
The Eternal and the Practical.
The Olympians
between
were descending
into the plain to repel the gathering
threat
previous
and instrumentalism.
of pragmatism
Younger
as C. M. Bakewell
and R. F. A. Hoernl
rallied
The period
definitely closed.
port.
of the undisputed
supremacy
idealists
such
to their sup
of idealism was
external events conspired

to give the innovators
Several
is finally
a hearing.
When the religious
history of America
written it may appear that the first decade
of the twentieth
eco
century was marked not only by the decline of political,
weakening
of thinking
sophy
but also by the

and philosophical
orthodoxy,
of the hold of Protestant Christianity
on the minds
social
nomic,
men.
Be this
in American
colleges
transferred
as it may, the teaching

of philo
and universities
was in this decade
clergy to a
of
rapidly growing
army
young Ph. D.'s,
most of whom were trained, not in Germany, but in American
centers of infection, such as Harvard,
Columbia
and Chicago.
In 1899 seniors in Williams
College were given the option of
"
"
Theism
taking a course on
given by the Bev. Franklin
"
D.
and
a course in the
Carter,
D., aged sixty-two,
History
"
of Philosophy,
given in the next room by B. B. Perry, Ph. D.,
I will, I am sure, be pardoned the suggest
aged twenty-two.
being
rapidly
secular-minded
from
ion that, for better of for worse,

The American
Philosophical
1901, and held its first meeting
the beginning
more
or
less
the
Protestant
and
it created
irreverent
an arena
youngsters
this was
a sign of the times.

was founded in
Association
in the spring of 1902. From

in which
of free discussion,
might
dispute
or
foment
The year 1904 saw the

against the dignitaries.
of the Journal
and
of Philosophy,
Psychology
"
"
that
whited
as
Methods,
Scientific
sepulchre,
Santayana
called it, in which young philosophers
might, as Creighton
conspiracies
foundation
433
PHILOSOPHY
AMERICAN
"
"
and in which they

it, be
expressed
flippant like James,
which
write
that
bad
James so energet
English against
might
1
ically protested.
it is neces
To understand
the doctrine of the innovators
sary to summarize
here details must
issues.
the content
be sacrificed
and
of the reigning
idealism,
in order to stress the crucial
Idealism
was a priori and intellectualiste;

spiritual
monistic
and absolutistic.
Innovators
moralistic;
who attacked one of these positions often enfiladed their allies
but during the first
who attacked from a different quarter,
did
to the
more damage
decade of the century, at least, they
and
istic
common
than
enemy
to
one
The most fundamental
another.
issue of this conflict
concerned
the
"
rle of the intellect in knowledge.
Idealism was
intellectual
"
iste
in the sense of affirming
that concepts,
categories,
ideals and necessities
grasped
by the pure intellect can be
of experience.
Pragmatism
imputed to existence in advance
or instrumentalism,
being the denial of this thesis, was there
of the new doctrines.
fore the most profoundly
revolutionary
admitted that the greatest
It will, I think, be generally
among
While
were
the innovators
James
over
ascendancy
damentals
the middle
William
at the beginning
had
their
Royce,
rles
and
James
John Dewey.
held an
of their relations
as
were,
later reversed;
of philosophy,
90's that James felt himself
and
regards
it was
the
fun
not until
safe from the menace
and possessed
of the necessary weapons,
idealism,
and offensive, with which to set forth his own doc
in
His Essays in Radical
were published
trine.
Empiricism
in 1904 and 1905, and his Pragma
The Journal of Philosophy
of absolute
defensive
the priority of James,

John Dewey acknowleged
to the latter's Principles
and his profound obligations
of Psy
of James both in his
chology, but he was largely independent
tism in 1907.
He was also more single

in his development.
and had a more definite program of research by which
Thus when with his company
of
to invite collaboration.
origins
minded
and
associates
in
Dewey
hailed
James
Theory,
and a well-equipped
port at the crucial
1 The
Letters
1903 published
"
The Chicago
his
Studies
in Logical
"
as a disciplined
to his sup
unexpectedly
School
army, marching
moment
of the battle.
of William
James,
1920,
II,
During
the
first
244.
434
RALPH
decade
BARTON
PERRY
century these allies fought side by side

in the
and The Journal of Philosophy,
in the American
and
Association,
Philosophical
of the twentieth
in the columns
of Mind
public press,
in the class-rooms
am
James
not
of American
unaware
the
of
universities.
differences
profound
but these differences
and
between
lie below
the horizon
Dewey,
Both philosophers,
and all their
distant retrospect.
were
in
the
of
cornerstone
followers,
undermining
engaged
the Kantian
doctrine
of pure
reason.
idealism,
namely,
an inherent
to this doctrine,
knowledge
According
possesses
of this
and
universal
transcendental
ual
which
to light by
can be brought
a
or
self-examination
of
the
intellect
logic,
by
and this structure can be imputed
in advance
structure
faculties;
to any knowable
as with Kant, that world
world, whether,
be limited to physical nature, or whether, as with his idealistic
it be extended to metaphysical
The older
followers,
reality.
a priori rationalism
is thus reinterpreted in terms of a character
of knowability
of all
which,
being the common
assumption
minds that lay claim to truth, can always be imputed, tu quo
to the critic himself.
que,
not dispute the formative

They did not fall back upon a
whether
or rationalistic,
conception,
empiricist
pre-Kantian
of the knowing
mind as a mere receptivity.
They fought the
The
innovators
pragmatic
or constructive
role of mind.
new
intellectualism
with
did
modern
In a sense they,
weapons.
But they
too, affirmed the a priori character of knowledge.
substituted a Darwinian
for a Kantian a priori.
The pragmat
istic a priori derived its virtue wholly from the sequel, being
conceived
as an experimental
of organic and prac
adaptation
tical needs to an environment
itself in sensory expe
expressing
rience.
Since
sensory
experience
pronounced
the
last
word,
and
dismiss any a priori, how

might quite unceremoniously
ever elaborate
and coherent, which was not to its liking, this
doctrine was properly classified as a novel form of empiricism.
The issue concerning
intellectualism
was complicated
by
"
"
the contemporary
of the
new logic.
appearance
Although
for its vogue in America,
Boyce himself was largely responsible
his attitude
was exceptional,
to belittle the new
disposed
For idealism
"
as
idealistic
and
on the whole
idealism
was
logic or regard it as an enemy.

had its own logic, even to-day generally
known
"
and set forth authoritatively
in the works
logic,
AMERICAN
435
PHILOSOPHY
The new logic was an innovation

of Bradley and Bosanquet.
in several particulars.
In the first place, in subordinating
the
it implied
to the relational
form of the judgment,
predicative
a profound breach with the classic Aristotelian
In the
logic.
as
an
second place, it developed
and
logic
independent
highly
technical branch of knowledge,
which like pure mathematics
affiliations.
In the
might be freed from specific philosophical
as its propo
third place,
such philosophical
interpretations
There were
nents did offer were of a sort alien to idealism.
intuitionism
of interpretation,
and
possibilities
If one emphasized
its objectivity,
as a study of
pragmatism.
freed altogether from the act of
types of abstract relationship
two
such
thinking,
by direct
the other
one could
consider
inspection
hand, one
of a realm
the new
logic
latter alternative
of the
growing
logic as the knowledge

of subsistent
entities.
If, on
its postulational
emphasized
aspect, as
of a set of assumptions,
one could consider
as a refinement of the instruments
of thought.
the elaboration
This
the new
adopted early in the second decade

and rapidly
and has led to the influential
But it so
of logico-experimental
positivism.
century,
school
was
that the first alternative
happened
to American
itself more
presented
con
in the first
and
Englich
philosophers
spicuously
decade of this century, when the new logic was as yet very
In any case, admitting that the new logic was ambig
new.
or
uous
as
its intuitionist-realistic
respects
pragmatist
the
it
worked
nominalistic
affiliation,
against
prevailing
from
logic
by divorcing
tendency
and multiplying
the alternatives
philosophical
implications,
ism might be escaped.
from
vators dissented
The
second
idealistic
by which ideal
on which the inno
issue
idealism
concerned
the metaphysical
or the moral will.
rle of mind, consciousness,
The idealistic
afforded the major contemporary
argu
theory of knowledge
and in
ment for a spiritualistic
and moralistic
metaphysics;
the
disputing
and
the
non-mental
is
meaningless.
thereby rendered
Naturalistic
the physical
innovators
mental,
which
realism,
was
only
one
is
denying
extended
would
conclusion,
Idealism
by the simple
known
qua
Bealists,
the
rejected
form of realism.
some
in the mental
the non-mental
that
the
argument
substituted
mental
that
reality
device
and
what
incorporated
of showing
qua
is
unknown
the mind.
beyond
the mental
incorporate
form of realism.
is
known
The
in
innovators
436
RALPH
PERRY
BARTON
were, for the most part, metaphysical

realists, who incorpo
rated both the mental and the physical in a realm which was
In any case naturalistic
neither.
and non-naturalistic
realists
that mind,
with its attributes
of thought
and
agreed
"
was a limited domain,
a
a
having
temporal
genesis,
"
and a name,
within the existent world at
local habitation
were
will
large.
The
rise of realism
in English
countries during
speaking
of the present century affords a
of parallel
and independent
The
striking instance
origins.
"
"
"
new
who
their
so-called
Pro
realists,
presented
joint
"
in 1910, but had already as indi
gram and First Platform
the first and
second
decades
its principal
doctrines, were influenced
anticipated
by
"
Under the name of
and irritated by Royce.
episte
"
"
"
naive
realistic view
monism,
mological
they revived the
that the external object of knowledge,
without prejudicing
its
viduals
James
externality,
may, and
mediate presentation.
also
in some
The
cases
so-called
in the field in the first decade
with im
does, coincide
"
"
critical realists
were
of the century,
before
long
the appearance
in 1921 of their joint publication,
Critical
Realism.
These
realists
were
avowedly
in
Essays
dualistic,
other
numerically
insisting that the external object

than the immediate
presentation
is always
or representation
it is known;
though the difference between
of realists, for reasons
that are too detailed
by which
the two schools
to be
embraced
in this survey, is a graded rather than an absolute difference.

In any case, both groups rejected the thesis of the universality
of mind,
and the idealistic
on which
it rested.
arguments
There
were
other
American
realism
and whose
they
belonged
some
other
to
no
label.
fessed realists,
an intercourse
own
realists
who
was not less authentic

group
James
or
and
because
Dewey
took
the
same
or influential
they
were
themselves
stand,
because
known
were
by
pro
since
the experimental
nature of truth involved
of the mind with some externality
not of its
F. J. E. Woodbridge,
G. S. Fullerton,
E. B. Mc
making.
Gilvary, Dickinson
S. Miller, J. E. Boodin,
Morris R. Cohen
and others were all realists, albeit each in his own way.
Mean
while a similar movement
had appeared
in England,
and had
both stimulated
This
and
numerous
confirmed
company
American
of realists
realism.
came
to their common
AMERICAN
realism
from various
ultimate
sources
437
PHILOSOPHY
and diverged
from it to different
but their
conclusions,
contemporaneous
appearance
in the first decade of the present century, forced a reconsid
eration if not an abandonment
of the most fundamental,
the
most
of the arguments
direct, and the most widely accepted
in behalf of idealism,the
which
argument,
namely,
assimilated
the object of knowledge
to the knowing
mind,
to its acts, its forms, or its states.
Idealism had other weapons
used
in its arsenal
to which
be said
since
that
it now
this
decade
resorted.
of realistic
But it may,
I think,
idealism
polemics
abandoned
its claim
of dialectical
largely
proof, and
assumed
the form of a hypothesis
which like its rivals must
be tested by its power to solve specific problems
and provide
has
a comprehensive
and self-consistent
account
of experience.
The third of the doctrines of the reigning idealism
which
was rejected by the innovators
was commonly
known as the
"
"
doctrine of the
Absolute.
This was the latest and most
formidable
of the age-long
tendency of philo
and to elevate that
sophy to stress the unity of the world,
above
the
vicissitudes
of
as
well as above the
change
unity
of
Monism
there
has
diversity
particulars.
always been, and
no doubt
conspire
manifestation
always will
in its favor.
motives
be, since so many philosophical
But idealistic monism rested on its own
idealistic
When
is made
the
grounds.
thought
peculiarly
master of things, then things must be conformed to the inher
ent tendencies
of thought.
But thought tends to generalize
and relate, to find identity in difference, and to substitute the
timeless
connections
of causality.
sequence
then the inter-relations
for the temporal

necessity
to
be
is to be thought,
If, furthermore,
of things, however great their differ
of logical
and they must be thought by

be thought;
that
Mind
whose
constitutes
one
all-enveloping
thinking
which
all
fallible
or
sub
standard
of objective
to
thinking
ence,
must
also
Added to these more

implicitly
appeal.
motive
motives, there is also the religious
strictly theoretical
evil to good, and to identify
which prompts men to subordinate
jective
minds
must
reality with the eternal realization of the ideal which man takes
as the goal of his temporal aspirations.
"
of a
concrete univer
Against this sublime
conception
"
within eternity,
within
time
sal,
embracing
unity,
variety
RALPH
438
BARTON
PERRY
and partiality within perfection the innovators

protested.
They had no other noble architecture to erect in its
In fact, they rather prided themselves
on escaping
the
place.
evil within
illusions
good
to which
was
they thought philosophy
felt
a
certain
with
the
They
sympathy
of science,
or even with its asceti
of grandeur
susceptible.
ordinance
self-denying
In place of the confident certainties
and speculative
cisms.
had
to
offer
but
a verdict of
of
idealism
nothing
flights
they
"
"
There was a certain bathos in their meta
not proven.
There were, however,
negations.
positive
impli
physical
The Absolute
resumed
cations.
appearance
being rejected,
peculiarly
Monism
and eternalism
are forced upon
its
and
when
is removed
that
force
against
grain,
experience,
for denying
there is no ground
the manifest fact that the
contains
irrelevance
as well as significance,
existent world
"
"
"
"
as well as
internal
conflict as well
external
relations,
and is
as coherence,
and
permeated
by change
novelty.
But if realists were thus actuated
by a sober regard for
the rle
of reality.
the facts, however

these might defeat the speculative
aspira
tions, they felt a powerful moral emotion of their own.
They
not only rejected, but resented, the idealistic
solution
of the
"
"
For James,
meant essentially
a
pluralism
problem of evil.
in
world
which the good was uncontaminated,
and in which
evil might
iatory after-thought.
this theme it is not
to the early influence
me
ularly exercised
the existence
of evil.
which
his arguments
breast.
This
and
" 1
less
by the moral will without any concil

Of the changes
which James rang on
to
speak.
referring
necessary
Santayana,
"
of Royce, said :
The point that partic
was Royce's
or justification
for
Theodicy
be opposed
ire
It would
be hard
on this subject
was
felt
in
many
to exaggerate
the ire
in my youthful
aroused
breasts
more
youthful
than
and the acceptance

Santayana's,
of moral
dualism,
together with its religious
implications,
to
the
who
tended
other
innovators,
gave passionate
solidarity
wise to be united rather by their negations
or dispersed
by
dispassionate
with special problems.

a preoccupation
The religious complement
of moral dualism was the finit
If God was to be identified with the good, and
ist theology.
if good
1
was
to be freed of complicity
Contemporary
American
Philosophy,
with
1930,
II,
evil,
then
God's
246.
AMERICAN
439
PHILOSOPHY
and only-ness
must be sacrificed.
God, like
omnipotence
a
within
a
which
becomes
world
is
in some
men,
partisan
The triumph of God, as the
degree resistant even to his will.
head and fount of goodness,
can no longer be imputed to the
constitution
of things, but must be an achievement
original
in time, contingent on the moral will.
with its insistence
on the irreducible
Pluralism,
many
of things, with its shameless

avowal
of moral dualism,
and theological
finitism, with its affirmation of the finality of
the individual
of inter-relations
person, with its substitution
for corporate entities, with its acceptance
of time, change and
ness
novelty as the only inescapable

fatality, was more than a party
It was the temper of the times.
creed.
who
Philosophers
were otherwise in good repute, and who repudiated
pragma
neu
tism, instrumentalism,
realism, naturalism,
empiricism,
tralism and other radical abominations
made concessions
to
this tendency, and testified to its infectiousness
by their heroic
efforts to insulate themselves
from its corrupting
effects.
If it is difficult
to estimate
the philosophy
of the first
century in its relation to the now
currents of antecedent thought, it is insuperably
relatively-clear
difficult to estimate it in relation to those as-yet-confused
cur
of the twentieth
decade
rents in whose
midst
we find ourselves
theless
I shall never
today.
to escape censure by
attempt this impossible,

hoping
the brevity of my treatment and the modesty of my claims.
If we lift our dripping
heads above the stream and look
In the first place, the current of
about us, what do we see?
flows on its uninterrupted
course.
American idealists
taken
a
leaf
from
the
innovators
and published
recently
idealism
have
a
the
announcement
wish
of their
volume
cooperative
of
their
own,
demise
for a moment
to question
or of their detached
thinkers,
semi-idealistic
as
was
to
though
that
protest
I
premature.
do
not
the individual
power of these
idealistic
and
idealistic,
quasi
Nor dare I predict that in the
contemporaries.
light of posterity they may not appear as the saving remnant
who have during the dark ages of the early twentieth century
nourished
the seeds of truth that these might spring to renew
harvest in the years to
ed life and bear a more abundant
come.
1
I do,
Contemporary
however,
Idealism
go
in
so far as to say that
America,
edited
by
C.
idealism
Barrett,
1932.
is
440
RALPH
BARTON
PERRY
only one stream among many, and that the purity of its
Even when idealists lay claim to the
waters is contaminated.
there is a decline from the
of the Great Tradition,
inheritance
now
I derive
note of authority and self-confidence.

from the title of Professor Hoernl's
old
tion
volume
cooperative
Revival
of Idealism
candid
mentioned.
confirma
contribution
In
of
to the
"
The
writing
"
this exceptionally
States,
an ante
idealist
presupposes
just
in the United
and
hospitably-minded
period of lowered vitality.
Nor can such a survey from the midst
cedent
of the present
the fact that the most
to disclose
fail
cur
powerful philosophical
us, powerful in their fruitfulness of ideas, in their
and promise of vigor, and in their attractiveness
manifestation
from the ferment of inno
have sprung
to youthful minds,
"
Bakewell
The
from
what
Professor
calls
rather
than
vation,
" 1
of the Idealist Tradition.
Continuity
rents about
Let me begin with positivism as the latest and most seduc

No one, least of all an idealist,
novelties.
tive of philosophical
it
descended
from
idealism.
claim
that
would
If, as I think is
true, it springs from seeds which were planted early in the
nineteenth century, and in some sense even from Rant himself,
it utterly rejects the way of salvation
It repudiates
successors.
by Kant's
itself.
but metaphysics
metaphysics,
which
was
proclaimed
only the idealistic
If we look for its anti
not
in the American
of the first decade
of
philosophy
cipations
insistence
on
the century, we find them in the empiricist
verification by the data of sense, in the pragmatist- instrumen
of the rle of the intellect, in the rise of the
talist conception
new logic, and in the attempt among realists to emulate science
and the definition of terms to substitute
and by collaboration
for isolated speculative
insight.
agreement
with the negations
of the
those who are dissatisfied
both of which pos
there are two alternatives,
positivism
methodical
For
new
sess, I think, a greater volume and force in English

speaking
stream of idealism;
and both of
countries than the continuing
from the innovating
tendencies
by which
at
the
of
the
challenged
beginning
century.
"
For the first of these I shall use the name of
neutralism."
which
have
idealism
Even
1
dualists
Ibid.,
sprung
was
p.
are now
disposed
to maintain
that the mental
25.
AMERICAN
that their common

homogeneous;
in perceptual
is disclosed
or affective
since
it
is
can
that this character,
common,
and
worlds
physical
describable
character
and
experience;
not be ascribed
world.
bilia
are
in any prior and exclusive

sense to either
so construed
is exemplified
by the wide
Neutralism
of
vogue
such
"
441
PHILOSOPHY
as
notions
"
"
experience
"
essences
",
"
sensa
",
"
sensi
"
",
",
",
prehensions
phe
perspectives
"
"
I submit, furthermore, that these
", and
images.
and kindred notions are now resorted to as a means of avoiding
",
nomena
which was once

and the agnostic substantialism
be
its
alternative.
to
thought
only
There are two fields of inquiry in which such notions play
"
the problem
rle.
The first of these is
of per
a dominant
"
This
has
not
been
problem
definitively solved, but
ception.
is
there
so great a display
in no field of philosophical
inquiry
both idealism
or so great fertility of hypothesis.

These same
of originality,
notions have played a leading part in the revival of metaphy
and the
sics by James,
Alexander,
Whitehead,
Santayana
works
of
Peirce
and
Mead.
I freely
Although
posthumous
of organism
does con
admit that th vogue of the conception
firm and continue a strain of idealism, I submit that this vogue
finds its strongest
logic of coherence
dental
contemporary
support not in the idealistic
or in the Kantian
unity of the transcen
but rather in the influence
of modern
biology
on the continuity of expe
physics, and in the insistence
at the opening
of the
rience by James, Peirce and Dewey
subject,
and
century.
the
broadly
speaking,
appear to me to justify the
reigning
Alexander's
innovators rather than the idealists.
Space, Time,
and Deity (1920) was the first protest, by deed and not merely
with method
against the preoccupation
by pious aspiration,
and special problems
of the
at the opening
ology, polemics,
In
as well,
respects
systems of metaphysics
other
century.
But
James
had
constructed
and
set
already
Pluralistic
the
with
example
his
If Bergson has
there is a growing
Universe.
only partially
ceased to be a popular
literary sensation,
achievement.
respect for his solid philosophical
Whitehead
is perhaps
figure in Anglo
to-day the most commanding
It needed no Last Puritan
to prove
American
metaphysics.
The remarkable
the prestige and wide influence of Santayana.
posthumous
reputation
of Peirce
and
Mead
completes
the pic
442
RALPH
ture.
Now
differences
if we compare
an empiricism,
BARTON
PERRY
these systems,
we find amidst
their
neutralism,
temporalism,
plural
science, which relate them closely to
the innovating
tendencies
that have since 1900 disputed
the
claims of idealism.
ism and
affiliation
with
Those
who are dissatisfied
with the negations
of posi
and with
tivism, with its rejection or neglect of metaphysics
its arbitrary narrowing
of the field of experience
to the data
of the laboratory, may, then, turn to neutralism its applica
tion
to the problem
of perception
extension to metaphysics.
idealistic
It may be
alternative.
tematic
or its speculative
and sys
But there is a second non
against
argued
positivism
that it has failed to render an account of its own fundamental
"
"
notion.
It speaks of
but does not go to
operationalism,
the roots of operation;
its appeals
to pragmatic
tests, and
reduces
to convenient
fictions, but it
philosophical
ideologies
no
of
Those
who
condemn
possesses
philosophy
practice.
on
this
score
will
themselves
with the con
positivism
identify
movement
temporary
movement
reasons,
practical
these
reasons
created
are,
in ethics
all of those
belong
acknowledge
and
what
is
and
theory
who, having
an obligation
their
reason,
of value.
To
this
belief
justified
to consider
until
one
shall
by
what
have
some
foundation
solid enough
to bear
philosophical
Workers in this field may
weight of science,
themselves
in the social or in the physical
variously
the formidable
interest
or in religion;
sciences;
of good and evil;
or in
The wide vogue of these
time is due primarily,
I
or in aesthetics;
or in the definition
the relations
of will and intellect.
and
instrumentalism,
in America
at the present
submit, to the rise of pragmatism
and to the recognition
among scientists
that
their
are
procedures
inquiries
governed
by
practical
norms.
There
in Ameri
tendencies
are, then, three contemporary
can philosophy,
all of which have been substantially
nourished
of the first decade of the twentieth century :
by the innovations
the
neutralistic
of experience,
neo-positivism;
interpretation
with its application
to theory of knowledge
and to metaphy
and the emergence

of a distinct branch of knowledge,
sics;
known
as theory of value,
its bearing
on theory of
having
and
and
knowledge
metaphysics,
accompanied
by a strong
revival of interest in philosophy
of religion,
ethics, aesthetics
and scientific methodology.
These tendencies
are, I need not
AMERICAN
add,
combined
in the same
one
another.
443
PHILOSOPHY
and interact signi

individuals,
What future awaits
them I do
ficantly upon
not predict.
After taking so many liberties with history and
with the contemporary
world the least I can do is to allow the
future the liberty of developing
it will take liberties
probable,
Harvard
in its own
with
way,
even
if, as is
me.
University.

Ralph Barton Perry - American Philosophy in The First Decade of The Twentieth Century

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Ralph Barton Perry - American Philosophy in The First Decade of The Twentieth Century

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Revue Internationale de Philosophie

American Philosophy in the First Decade of the Twentieth Century

are always aspects of novelty in any given period of

furthermore, to think by centuries, and to suppose that a dif

is better than a tedious recital of names

root and borne

fruit, what that

for my task that during the first decade of

of the decade, having concluded

I will not say high-and-dry,

and partly by pre-established

itself the unan

piety was challenged,

by camp followers who obtained

The revolt against philosophical

with the Puritanism

But it was necessary

itself to the Presbyterian

after the middle

But the names

and Hegel were the names to conjure

the legitimate philosophical

the rle of a graduate

phy in the year 1905,

to profit by the deeper wisdom of that day, what is the appear

the time were almost

group who had

from 1881 to 1907.

set forth his individual

under the title of The Limits of Evolu

a wide and profound influence

how to spread his influence

Royce was at the height of his power, his masterpiece,

and in the fact that, while he never

The chief American disciple of Lotze, and

has adopted this title as its name, and

the more orthodox

idealists, it was avowedly

year, 1905, we look towards Europe and

only recently passed from the

was perhaps the most widely

But from the American

Bradley, whose restrained and impersonal

1883 and his Appearance

Spencer to 1902, their influence

sia) . The influence of Henry Sidgwick

und seine Weltanschauung

in 1900, was despised

set its author

apart from the main current of

and his influence

their temper of mind as well as their doctrine, each

not only the logic of their

not only rejected but disapproved.

already made enough

external events conspired

but also by the

as it may, the teaching

ion that, for better of for worse,

a sign of the times.

in the spring of 1902. From

The year 1904 saw the

and in which they