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Start giftingAmerican Philosophy
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Learn moreThe epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around.
In American Philosophy, John Kaag—a disillusioned philosopher at sea in his marriage and career—stumbles upon a treasure trove of rare books on an old estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that once belonged to the Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. The library includes notes from Whitman, inscriptions from Frost, and first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As he begins to catalog and preserve these priceless books, Kaag rediscovers the very tenets of American philosophy—self-reliance, pragmatism, the transcendent—and sees them in a twenty-first-century context.
Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy. After studying under Harvard’s philosophical four—William James, George Santayana, Josiah Royce, and George Herbert Palmer—he held the most prestigious chair at the university for the first three decades of the twentieth century. And when his teachers eventually died, he collected the great books from their libraries (filled with marginalia) and combined them with his own rare volumes at his family’s estate. And there they remained for nearly eighty years, a time capsule of American thought.
Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is an invigorating investigation of American pragmatism and the wisdom that underlies a meaningful life.
John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of Idealism, Pragmatism, and Feminism and Thinking through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other publications.
Josh Bloomberg, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a trained professional actor with extensive audiobook experience as a director and narrator. Having worked with some of the biggest publishers in the audiobook industry, he is used to performing at high standards. He speaks English, French, and Hebrew fluently and is a member of the Audio Publishers Association. He also records his voice for commercial spots and other types of voice-over. In his spare time, he loves making homemade almond milk.
Reviews
“Ideas may be Kaag’s first love, but they bring him a flesh-and-blood Beatrice in this open-hearted account of a young man’s second chance at a sentimental education.”
“Remarkable…Part history of American philosophy, part personal narrative, American Philosophy…takes us deeply into that ‘epic love affair with wisdom’ that is philosophy…leads us to where the heart of true philosophy lies: to a deep and abiding sense of wonder. This is an absolutely stellar memoir.”
“Accurate, engaging, and scrupulous…an unconventional argument for who was right, and who was wrong, in the classical tradition of American philosophy from about 1830 to 1930…It is an argument strikingly suited to our time.”
“John Kaag hits the sweet spot between intellectual history and personal memoir in this transcendently wonderful love song to philosophy…a magnificently accessible introduction to fundamental ideas about freedom and what makes life significant. It’s an exhilarating read.”
“A compelling hybrid combining memoir, a dramatic narrative about saving an endangered rare book collection, and the intellectual history of philosophy…The author deftly intertwines the narrative threads in a story perfect for book lovers and soul searchers alike. Kaag’s lively prose, acute self-examination, unfolding romance, and instructive history of philosophy as a discipline make for a surprisingly absorbing book.”
“A unique combination of memoir and the history of American philosophy that is a joy to read.”
“This is philosophy not as mere academic concepts but as lived experience.”
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