HUM 350American Philosophy

This course explores the tradition of ideas in America. The focal point of the course will be America’s most distinctive contribution to the tradition of philosophy, the philosophy of pragmatism. America’s attempt to express itself philosophically assumed many forms. Sources will be varied as students trace the development of common themes in the early religious thought of the Puritans, the American Enlightenment and the philosophy of the founding, Transcendentalism and the rise of democratic individuality, the abolitionist movement and women’s rights and pragmatism itself.