The Drama of Possibility Experience as Philosophy of Culture [Hardcover]

This book traces the trajectory of John J. McDermotts philosophical career through a selection of his essays. Many were originally occasional pieces and address specific issues in American thought and culture. Together they constitute a mosaic of McDermotts philosophy, showing its roots in an American conception of experience. Though he draws heavily on the thought of William James and the pragmatists, McDermott has his own unique perspective on philosophy and American life. He presents this to the reader in exquisitely crafted prose. Drawing inspiration from American history, from existentialist themes, and from personal experiences, he offers a dramatic consideration of our cultures failures and successes.

McDermott crosses disciplinary boundaries to draw on whatever works to help make sense of the
issues with which he is dealingissues rooted in medical practice, political events, pedagogical habits, and the worlds of the arts. His work thus resists simple categorization. It is precisely this that makes his vibrant prose appealing to so many both inside and outside the world of American philosophy.

More than any other current writer, John J. McDermott is widely recognized as the preeminent interpreter and the living bearer of the classical American philosophical tradition--Emerson, James, Royce, Dewey. Combining that tradition with Camusian existentialism, McDermott grabs us by the neck, drags us from the anemic abstractions of the academy, back to the muck of the everyday, and reminds us not only of philosophy's unfathomable power to shatter worlds and to shake us to the very core of our precarious existence, but also of how philosophy nourishes souls and communities. This is a ride, not for the faint of heart, on which McDermott has taken tens-of-thousands of students during his lengendary career and now, thanks to this collection of his most important pieces, masterfully selected and edited by Douglas Anderson, the ride is available to manyl1