The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism (Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy)

353 Pages·2000·0.8 MB·English

by  Paul B. Thompson

The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism
The Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy offers interpretive perspectives
on the historical roots of American philosophy and on present innovative
developments in American thought, including studies of values, naturalism,
social philosophy, cultural criticism, and applied ethics.
series editor
Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.
Indiana University & Purdue University at Indianapolis
editorial advisoryboard
Kwame Anthony Appiah (Harvard Joel Porte (Cornell University)
University) Hilary Putnam (Harvard University)
Larry A. Hickman (Southern Illinois Ruth Anna Putnam (Wellesley College)
University) Andrew J. Reck (Tulane University)
John Lachs (Vanderbilt University) Beth J. Singer (Brooklyn College)
John J. McDermott (Texas A&M John J. Stuhr (Pennsylvania State
University) University)
Other titles in the series include
dewey's empirical theory of knowledge and reality
John R. Shook
thinking in the ruins
Wittgenstein and Santayana on Contingency
Michael P. Hodges and John Lachs
pragmatic bioethics
edited by lenn mcgee
transforming experience
John Dewey's Cultural Instrumentalism
Michael Eldridge
The Agrarian
Roots of Pragmatism
Edited by Paul B. Thompson
and
Thomas C. Hilde
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
© Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First Edition 2000
04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The agrarian roots of pragmatism / edited by Paul B. Thompson and Thomas
C. Hilde.—
1st ed.
p. cm. — (The Vanderbilt library of American philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8265-1339-5
1. Pragmatism—History. 2. Agriculture—Philosophy—History.
I. Thompson, Paul B., 1951– II. Hilde, Thomas C. III. Title. IV. Series.
B832.A34 2000
144'.3'0973--dc21 00-008775
Published by Vanderbilt University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on the Text ix
Introduction: Agrarianism and Pragmatism 1
THOMAS C. HILDE AND PAUL B. THOMPSON
Part I. Defining the Agrarian Tradition
Agrarianism as Philosophy 25
PAUL B. THOMPSON
American Agrarianism: The Living Tradition 51
JAMES A. MONTMARQUET
Land, Labor, and God in American
Colonial Thought 77
CHARLES TALIAFERRO
Part II. Prepragmatist Agrarianism in America
Franklin Agrarius 101
JAMES CAMPBELL
Thomas Jefferson and Agrarian Philosophy 118
PAUL B. THOMPSON
Emerson and the Agricultural Midworld 140
ROBERT S. CORRINGTON
Wild Farming: Thoreau and Agrarian Life 153
DOUGLAS R. ANDERSON
vi Contents
Part III. Pragmatism and Agrarianism: Dewey and Royce
Provincialism, Displacement, and Royce’s
Idea of Community 167
THOMAS C. HILDE
Does Metaphysics Rest on an Agrarian Foundation?
A Deweyan Answer and Critique 185
ARMEN MARSOOBIAN
The Edible Schoolyard: Agrarian Ideals and Our
Industrial Milieu 195
LARRY A. HICKMAN
Part IV. Twentieth-Century Agrarian Thought in the
Pragmatist Tradition
The Relevance of the Jeffersonian Dream Today 209
JOHN M. BREWSTER
Two on Jefferson’s Agrarianism 254
GENE WUNDERLICH
Steinbeck and Agrarian Pragmatism 269
RICHARD E. HART
Coming Full Circle? Agrarian Ideals and Pragmatist Ethics
in the Modern Land-Grant University 279
JEFFREY BURKHARDT
Notes 304
Bibliography 315
Contributors 329
Index 332
Acknowledgments
The seed for this book was planted at a meeting of the Society for the
Advancement of American philosophy held in Philadelphia back in the
mid-1980s. Among the eventual contributors to this book, Thompson,
Campbell, Marsoobian, Corrington, and Hart (plus a few others, bring-
ing the total to about a dozen) began over dinner to toss around ideas on
the agrarian roots of pragmatism. Thompson, having just received a grant
from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to promote humanistic studies of
agriculture, volunteered to pick up the check for the whole table (it came
to about seventy-five bucks—not much even then), but insisted that in re-
turn everyone was obligated to write up their ideas. A first round of pa-
pers on this topic was published in a special issue of Agriculture and
Human Values. Hilde appeared on the scene in about 1994, lamenting
the fact that the location of these articles made them totally obscure for
people working in the pragmatist tradition. Thompson and Hilde worked
together off and on for six more years, adding papers and recruiting addi-
tional authors and then editing the volume. The collection before you is,
thus, the eventual return on that Philadelphia fish dinner so long ago.
Though most of this work was a labor of love for everyone involved, we
would like to thank the W. K. Kellogg Foundation for the seventy-five
dollars that was needed to get the project off the ground.
We would also like to thank our authors, who not only labored over
their own contributions but served as commentators and reviewers (some-
times cheerleaders) for one anothers’ chapters. We received a great deal of
encouragement from John McDermott and Herman Saatkamp, for which
we are grateful. David Danbom made very insightful suggestions about
the entire project, as well as on Thompson’s chapters. The book was con-
ceived and the initial steps were taken when both Thompson and Hilde
were associated with the philosophy department at Texas A&M
University. We would like to thank our departmental colleagues for their
tolerance of an oddball historical project. The clerical staff at Texas
vii
Acknowledgments viii
A&M’s Center for Biotechnology Policy and Ethics helped in with the
correspondence that was essential for the early stages of the project. The
College of Liberal Arts, the Institute for Biosciences and Technology, and
the Office of the Vice President for Research (all at Texas A&M) con-
tributed the funds that paid those staff salaries. Two individuals, John
Borin and Daralyn Wallace, were particularly involved in the early stages.
Three individuals were also deeply involved in the final stages, taking
charge of correspondence with authors, editing, indexing, and organizing
the manuscript, and reading and reviewing the entire manuscript several
times, with an eye to editorial and organizational questions. They are
Todd Ferguson, Sarah Roberts, and Debra Jackson, all Ph.D. students in
philosophy at Purdue University. Sarah, Debra, and Todd were each sup-
ported for a term by a research assistantship tied to the Joyce and Edward
E. Brewer Professorship in Applied Ethics. It is very clear that this book
might have been many more years in the making without the insight, dili-
gence, and judgment that they brought to the final stages of the project.
Unfortunately, we have not taken enough advice from any of these
people that we can displace from our own shoulders blame for errors of
judgment or fact.
A Note on the Text
Citations listing author, date of publication, and page number are paren-
thetically inserted in the text. All parenthetical citations refer to the com-
prehensive bibliography that appears at the end of the volume. Notes may
occasionally incorporate further citations, but always within the context of
amplifying or commenting on the main text. Whenever practicable, we
have edited previously published chapters to make use of canonical
sources for principle figures. When the original reference (or the author’s
intent) was unclear, we have maintained the original citation. Benjamin
Franklin’s writings will be cited when possible from the Yale University
Press critical edition: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W.
Labaree, William B. Willcox, and Barbara B. Oberg (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1959– ), indicating volume and page number [for ex-
ample, “(10:129)” for volume 10, page 129]. The Autobiography, ed.
Leonard W. Labaree, Ralph L. Ketcham, Helen C. Boatfield, and Helene
H. Fineman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964) will be cited using
an “A” in the place of a volume number [for example, “(A:129)”].
Material from those years not yet reached in the new edition will be cited
from the Albert Henry Smyth edition of The Writings of Benjamin
Franklin(New York: Macmillan, 1907) cited as “W” followed by the vol-
ume and page number [for example, “(W10:129)”]. Thomas Jefferson’s
writings are cited from the two Library of America volumes: Writings
(1984) and Public and Private Papers (1990). Except when otherwise
noted, Josiah Royce’s writings refer to John McDermott’s two-volume
Basic Writings of Josiah Royce (1969). Citations to John Dewey refer to
Boydston’s The Collected Works of John Dewey (1969–1991), published
and referenced as The Early Works (EW), The Middle Works (MW), and
The Later Works(LW).
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