Promotional Information

From a Philosophical Point of View has an intellectual unity that results when a single mind of real ability looks about and surveys a wide variety of interesting issues. The author's adroit prose makes it a pleasure to read his discussions. And his wide reading in many fields endows his material with solidity and depth of informative range. -- Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh

Table of Contents

*FrontMatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. vii*Introduction: What I Have Learned by Rereading These Essays, pg. 1*Introduction, pg. 3*CHAPTER 1 Prologue to A Philosophy of Culture (2002), pg. 5*CHAPTER 2 Philosophy and Man: An Exhortation (1955), pg. 9*CHAPTER 3 The Social Role of Philosophy (1952), pg. 14*CHAPTER 4. New Horizons in Philosophy (1960), pg. 21*Introduction, pg. 31*CHAPTER 5 A Plea for an Analytic Philosophy of History (1953), pg. 33*CHAPTER 6 Historical Relativism and the Evaluation of Histories (2003), pg. 40*CHAPTER 7 Historical Inevitability (1956), pg. 51*CHAPTER 8. Tolstoy the Empirical Fox (2003), pg. 56*Introduction, pg. 69*CHAPTER 9. John Dewey: A Great Philosopher of Education (1966), pg. 71*CHAPTER 10. Religion, Politics, and the Higher Learning (1954), pg. 74*CHAPTER 11. Religious Commitment and Higher Education (1957), pg. 81*CHAPTER 12. The University in Transition (1966), pg. 88*CHAPTER 13. Philosophy in a Utopian Institute for Advanced Study (1989), pg. 91*Introduction, pg. 95*CHAPTER 14. The Analytic and the Synthetic: An Untenable Dualism (1950), pg. 97*CHAPTER 15. Ontological Clarity and Semantic Obscurity (1951), pg. 107*CHAPTER 16. On the Church-Frege Solution of the Paradox of Analysis (1948), pg. 112*CHAPTER 17. Oughts and Cans (1979), pg. 116*CHAPTER 18. Causation and Action (1969), pg. 121*CHAPTER 19. Hart and Honore on Causation in the Law (1960), pg. 130*CHAPTER 20. The Question of Free Will: Some Preliminary Remarks (1993), pg. 134*Introduction, pg. 141*CHAPTER 21. Harvard's Philosophical Heritage (1957), pg. 143*CHAPTER 22. Experiment and Necessity in Dewey's Philosophy (1959), pg. 149*CHAPTER 23. Value and Obligation in Dewey and Lewis (1949), pg. 160*CHAPTER 24. Desire and Desirability: A Rejoinder to a Posthumous Reply by John Dewey (1996), pg. 167*CHAPTER 25. Peirce's Summum Bonum and the Ethical Views of C. I. Lewis and John Dewey (1999), pg. 178*CHAPTER 26. Normative Ethics, Normative Epistemology, and Quine's Holism (1986), pg. 186*CHAPTER 27. Holistic Pragmatism and Ethics (2002), pg. 199*CHAPTER 28. The Psychologism of Hume and Arithmetical Truth (2003), pg. 211*Introduction, pg. 215*CHAPTER 29. Why Annalists of Ideas Should Be Analysts of Ideas (1975), pg. 217*CHAPTER 30. The Revolt against Formalism in American Social Thought of the Twentieth Century (1947), pg. 227*CHAPTER 31. Pragmatism and the Revolt against Formalism: Revising Some Doctrines of William James (1986), pg. 243*CHAPTER 32. The Politics of Epistemology (1989), pg. 255*CHAPTER 33. Original Sin, Natural Law, and Politics (1956), pg. 270*CHAPTER 34. Philosophy, The Federalist, and the Progressive Era (1988), pg. 284*CHAPTER 35. The American Intellectual versus the American City (1961), pg. 299*CHAPTER 36. The Philosopher and the Metropolis in America (1963), pg. 310*INTRODUCTION, pg. 321*CHAPTER 37. William James (1986), pg. 323*CHAPTER 38. The Later Years of George Santayana (1963), pg. 331*CHAPTER 39. English Philosophy at Midcentury: An American's Impressions (1951), pg. 333*CHAPTER 40. Memories of G. E. Moore (1959), pg. 339*CHAPTER 41. W. V. Quine (2001), pg. 344*Acknowledgments, pg. 349*Index, pg. 353

About the Author

Morton White is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Intellectual History at the Institute for Advanced Study. Earlier, he was Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. His most recent book is "A Philosophy of Culture" (Princeton).

Reviews

"From a Philosophical Point of View has an intellectual unity that results when a single mind of real ability looks about and surveys a wide variety of interesting issues. The author's adroit prose makes it a pleasure to read his discussions. And his wide reading in many fields endows his material with solidity and depth of informative range." - Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh"