Concerning Philosophy in the United States

Author(s): REINER SCHÜRMANN and Charles T. Wolfe

Source: Social Research, Vol. 61, No. 1 (SPRING 1994), pp. 89-113
Published by: The New School
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Concerning /
Philosophy /
inthe /
UnitedStates*/BY REINER SCHÜRMANN
A nationcan countitselfluckyto have severalthousand
leisuredand relatively
relatively unspecializedintellectuals
who
are exceptionallygood at puttingtogetherarguments and
pullingthemapart(Rorty, 1982,pp. 22Off).

1 his happynationis the UnitedStates,and theseexcellent

intellectualsare itsphilosophers.In thewayof simpleguiding
points, I willfirstretracetheantecedentsand consequencesof
a historically decisiveturning-point in the relationsbetween
philosophy and the national question. The thousands of
intellectualsin questionindeed began to make theircountry
happyduringtheverydecade whentheSputniksweremaking
it unhappy. I will then suggestthat the specter haunting
Americanphilosophical discoursetodayis theplea. [The sense
of the originaltermplaidoyer is strictly
legal: a courtplea, an
argument.] As not onlytime but also space are at issuein all of
this,it willproveusefulto locatethe "continental rift" which
separatesanalyticmethod from phenomenologicalmethod
accordingto thecommonopinionin the UnitedStates.Lastly,
one willhave to ask if,as is sometimesclaimed,a conversation
is being engaged in todaybetweentechniciansof arguments
and phenomenologists of "thethingsthemselves." Whateverits
realchancesmightbe, theurgencyof thisdialoguewillonlybe
* This articlefirstappearedin Le temps
de la réflexion
6 (1985): 303-321,an issue
devotedto "The Pastand Its Future:Essayson Traditionand Teaching."

SOCIAL RESEARCH, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring1994)

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90 SOCIAL RESEARCH

comprehensibleonce thephilosophicalbipolarity
producedby
historyhas been grasped.
intellectual
national

The EclipseofAmericanPhilosophy

Philosophy,just likeculturein general,tookon increasingly

mottledtonesin the UnitedStatesdependingon thewavesof
immigration. That is to say thatfewdoctrinesor convictions
existin theNew Worldwhichwerenottracedout upon those
of theOld World.But itis one thingto speakof philosophyin
Americaand anotherto speak of Americanphilosophy.The
latteris not over a hundredyearsold. It was born in New
EnglandaftertheCivilWar.Thus, withoutentirely sacrificing
polychromia to monochromia, it a
presents markedlypredom-
inantcolor:theoptimistic greenof Pragmatism. The firsttext
in the lineage,the essay of Charles Sanders Peirce entitled
"How to ClarifyOur Ideas" (1878), bearswitnessto this.The
trialof clarificationthatit advocatedconsistedindeed in the
applicationof ideas, namely,in theirpracticalefficaciousness.
For Peirce,themeaningof a conceptcomesfromtheeffective
linguisticcommunicationthat it brings about. For his
successorsWilliamJamesandJohnDewey,thistrialmeantthat
a concepthad to showits efficaciousness in the searchfora
moral or politicalconsensus.WilliamJames' maxim is well
known:"Truthis whatworks."This quintessentially American
philosophy-pragmatism, nowtermedclassical-was movedby
an interest which was as passionateas it was particular:the
interestin the defenseand reformof republicaninstitutions.
Justas thegenesisofAmericanRepublicanism is suigeneris,
the
theoriesof knowledge,language,science,and actionto which
it gave riseare so as well,even if Peirceadmittedhis debt to
Kant,Jamesto Bergson,and Deweyto Hegel. The fecundity
of Pragmatism was suchthatmoremetaphysical thinkers,such
as Josiah Royce and Alfred North Whitehead,remained
marginalfiguresdespite,or perhapsdue to, theirspeculative

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 91

thrust.The greateducatoroftheUnitedStates,thespokesman
of whatthereis called the democraticprocess,the optimistic
reformerof institutions who repeated that one "learns by
doing"remainsJohnDewey.Few intellectuals would denyhis
paternity today. He was the last representative of the golden
age of Americanphilosophy.He died in 1952.
To understandtheturnthatwas embarkedupon then,one
shouldremembertwoothercurrentswhichgraduallyspread
in philosophydepartments.One, originatingin Cambridge,
settledin Americain thethirties, and theother,originating in
Vienna and passingthroughOxford,reachedAmericaafter
thewar.The Englishliketo callBertrandRusselltheirVoltaire
byreasonofhisstandson religion,morals,education,and war.
But if Russell,togetherwithhis Cambridgecolleagues,gave a
new orientationto Anglo-Saxonphilosophy,it was through
whathe called his analyticmethod.It is not easy to discern
preciselywhathe meantthereby.This methodallowsone to
answer,so he said, the question,"Whatare the constitutive
elementsof realityor of some of its aspects?"The analysis
bears on propositionsand aims at exact definitions, whether
they be real or contextual.
Thus, the real definitionof timeis
thatit is made up of instants,and its contextualdefinitionis
that"givenan eventx, any evententirelysubsequentto an
eventwhichis a contemporary ofx is entirely
subsequentto an
eventwhichis initiallya contemporary of x." In the broadest
sense, analysisconsistsin dissolvingthe given unityof the
world into its elementsby examiningthe propositionsof
ordinarylanguage which"make sense." As the criterionof
meaningis immediateexperienceand, therefore, singular,in
Russell at least, the traditionof Ockham and Hobbes'
nominalismfinds itself revived by this method. George
EdwardMoore,a colleagueof Russell,recommendedthe new
linguisticmannerof Englishempiricist and nominalist usage as
manifesting theinherentclarity ofancientcommonsense.This
affinity with the medieval and modern ancestorsdoubtless
explainswhy,on theothersideof theChannelas wellas of the

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92 SOCIAL RESEARCH

Atlantic,terms such as "analysis" and "analytic philosophy"

have gained such prestigesince the beginning of the century,
so much so that they equal in pathos and elasticity the
"Cartesianism" invoked by the French. In both cases, too, I
suspect that these verbal adornmentsserve the purpose of the
same illusorytransmutation,analogous to the Edison effect:
one thinks that one is converting, by means of a mere
invocation, the ardor of preferences and opinions into the
clarityof the concept.
The othercurrentassertingitselfat the momentof the great
forced divide of ideas in the fiftiesis the logical positivism
stemmingfrom Vienna. Shortlybefore Hitler's advent, some
Austrian philosophers had assembled in a society with a
significant name: the Verein Ernst Mach. They aimed at
translating into philosophy the ideal of scientific purity
associated with the name of the physicistMach. The title of
their manifestoacknowledges the same ideal: Wissenschaftliche
Weltauffassung : der WienerKreis("The ScientificConception of
theWorld:The Vienna Circle").Amongthe membersof this
Circle, Moritz Schlick,Otto Neurath, Herbert Feigl, Kurt
Godei,and RudolfCarnapwereto be found.Karl Popperand
LudwigWittgenstein were among its associates.In Germany,
Hans Reichenbachand Carl Hempelconsideredthemselves to
be close to the Circle.It is not an exaggerationto see in this
group'sdebatesthe archetypeof thosewhichgo on todayin
mostAmericanuniversities. Wittgenstein aboveall remainsthe
uncontestedpatriarch.The publicationsof the Vienna Circle
are likethebirthcertificate of all thathas passed forrigorous
philosophyin the UnitedStatesforthe last thirty years.The
key elementof this rigor consists of what must indeed be
translatedas the "principleof verifiability." This principle
stipulates- at leastforthe "operationalists"- themeaning
that
of a propositionis givenbythemethodof verifying it. It may
also imply that a propositionmeans exactly the set of
experiencesof whichit givesan account,and thatits truthis
coextensivewith this set. The main part of traditional

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 93

philosophicalassertions thus falls under the verdict of

nonsense (Sinnlosigkeit). Every ethical proposition,whether
normativeor metaphysical, calls upon emotionalassociations,
whichrenderit unverifiable and depriveit of any cognitive
value. Such a propositionis neithertrue nor false; it has no
truth-value(Wahrheitswert).The sameholdsforepistemological
realism:to speakof theoutsideworldis no moresensiblethan
to speak of a higherworld.We do not possessany methodto
verifyif a worldexistsindependently of our propositions,yes
or no. The principleof verifiability ends up redirectingthe
verydiscourseof philosophyitself.Henceforththelatterdoes
not concern itselfwith the world but with the language
throughwhichpeople speak of the world.The data thatit
analyzesis language-bound,thatis whyit is transmutedinto
logic; moreover,its data are empirical,and thatis whyit is
Insofaras itis logical,itlendsitselfto formalization,
positivist.
withthe ensuingindifference towardshistory;insofaras it is
positivist,it dedicatesitselfto scientism.At Oxford,John L.
Austinand AlfredAyer translatedthese premisesfor the
Anglo-Saxonworld.
Americanpragmatism,Britishempiricism,and Viennese
positivismjoined togetherto form an intellectualdrama
during the fiftiesin the United States. At the time when
SenatorJosephMcCarthywas launchinghis crusade against
any variety of critical thinkingin the name of anti-
Communism, noneof thephilosophydepartments of thegreat
universities escaped from the purge. The country entered into
theAge of Suspicion.The coincidencewiththe readjustment
of the axes of philosophyis striking, to say the least. Here is
how RichardRortydescribedthischange:

[I]n theearlyFifties,
analytic
philosophybeganto takeover
Americanphilosophydepartments. The great émigrés-
Carnap,Hempel,Feigl, Reichenbach, Bergmann,Tarski-
began to be treatedwiththe respecttheydeserved.Their
beganto be appointedto,and to dominate,
disciples themost
prestigiousdepartments.
Departmentswhichdid notgo along

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94 SOCIAL RESEARCH

withthistrendbeganto lose theirprestige.By 1960,a newsetof

philosophicalparadigmswas in place. A new sortof graduate
educationin philosophywas entrenched-one in whichDewey
and Whitehead,heroes of the previousgeneration,were no
longerread, in whichthe historyof philosophywas decisively
downgraded,and in which the study of logic assumed an
importancepreviouslygivento the studyof languages(Rorty,
1982,pp. 214ff).

Rorty,himselfone of the names in analyticphilosophy,sees no

politicaltrace in this displacement (while writingthat "on the
other side of the street,""unscientific"European philosophy
predisposed Heidegger to Nazism and Sartre to Stalinism,just
as it preventedFoucault fromsharingin "the ordinarycivilized
hope for the rule of law" [Rorty,1982, p. 229]). The take-over
in question cannot be dissociated from the governmentaland
academic "witchhunt." If the social reformerDewey and the
philosopherof lifeWhitehead were no longer read, the reason
was thatit was no longer prudent to read and teach them. The
eclipse of American philosophy in America, that is, of
pragmatism,is to be inscribedin a broader cultural overshad-
owing. It became dangerous to make pronouncementson what
were then called "values." Whoever could not hang these on
the American flag in some way or other was labeled a
Communistand put his career at risk.Even the positivistswere
not entirely safe, for what could be more subversive than
declaring concepts like "God" and "country"to be meaning-
less?
In this atmosphere, where could one turn? Some German
emigres, such as Hannah Arendt, even considered exiling
themselvesonce again. Others quietlyleftthe academic world.
But for the majorityof intellectualsonly two places of refuge
presented themselves: religion and the sciences. These were
the two clear and avowable ways of settlingthe question of
"values"- one being homiletic,and the other, as the Viennese
had rightlyput it, wertneutral,neutral withregard to values.
May Hölderlin forgiveme- "There where the danger lies,
also grows/That which saves." What was growingwas Willard

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 95

Quine, "the greatestof the livingsystematicphilosophers"

(StuartHampshire)-and whatwas to be saved was thelogical
régimeof ordinarylanguage.Quine's essay"Two Dogmas of
Empiricism,"which would become the dictionaryof any
philosophy thatwantedto be scientific,
appearedin 1951. The
guidingquestionin philosophybecame: "Whatdo we mean
whenwe saythat... ?" The taskof analysisbecamerestricted
to the examinationof propositionssuch as "No bacheloris
married,"wordssuch as "and," "not,"or "as," and of what
Quine called onticcommitment. When we say, for instance,
that "There is an x such that x is a bachelor,"we are
committing ourselvesto holdingthatsomething likea bachelor
exists.The logical régimeof ordinarylanguage thus allows
itselftobe axiomatized.Values no longerfallundertheverdict
of nonsensebut into the networkof beliefsabout whichthe
philosopherof ordinarylanguage has nothingto say. The
reference of words, Quine said, remains impenetrable.
Strengthenedby this restriction, he not only survivedthe
cross-fire of denunciationsat Harvard University but, more-
over, establishedthe model for what scientificphilosophy
would henceforthbecome. To the great dismay of the
newcomerson the market of élite universities,such as
Princetonand Pittsburgh, the departmentat Harvardset and
continuesto setthetonein academicphilosophy.1 "As Harvard
philosophy so
goes, goes the an
discipline," apothegmthatone
is told ... at Harvard.Consequently, a similarturnwas to be
takenin all of the major universities of the country.From
Berkeley,Hannah Arendtwroteto KarlJaspers,"Philosophy
has fallenintosemantics-and third-rate semanticsat that."2A
representative proposeda law whichaimed at eliminating any
philosophy courses otherthanelementary and advancedlogic
on publiccampuses.The lattersubjectswere"safe"becausein
thecataloguestheircoursedescriptions referredto computers.
The prestigeof formallogicwas indeedcombined,quitenat-
urally,withthenewformulaforguaranteeing nationalprestige:
to put scientific researchin step withmilitary defense.For a

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96 SOCIAL RESEARCH

professor ofphilosophy, theguaranteedmeansofobtaining im-

portant federalgrants was and remains submitting research pro-
grams which are treatablein formalized language. If itis true,as
Hegel thinks, that the philosopher is the spokesman of the ob-
jectivespirit of his time,the United States have and can effec-
tivelydeem themselves happy. The faith in technology is the
cementto whichthesystems of ideas,as variedas theymaybe,
owe theircohesion,and whichtherelativeintellectual diversifi-
cationofrecentyearshas neithershakennorevenrevealed.It is
enoughto studythedisposition ofthebuildingson manyAmer-
icancampusesto see howphilosophers dischargethemselves of
the taskthatHegel assignedto them.Their departments are
oftenadjacenttothecomputercenter.The monochromatic con-
stellationof knowledge, whichhenceforth is steelgray,reaches
the dignityof the conceptin the articles-morerarely,in the
books- wherephilosophymakesitselfthe anelilaof scientific
knowledgeand of itscontemporary methods.To be sure,it is
onlyin somefineelementsofresearchthatitdirectly servesthe
StateDepartmentor the Pentagon,but in all of its exercises,
analytic reasonconsolidates and legitimates thesurrounding sci-
entism.A culturereceivesthephilosophers thatitdeserves.If in
Germanytheirdéformation leads themto ceaselessly
professionelle
bring back into servicea tradition which is perhapsover,and in
Franceto give in to literaryposturings, in America,it is the
searchfortherighteffectin thesenseof efficaciousness which
.
lurksin them.As Reichenbachsaid,". scientific. philosophy
which, in the science of our time, has found the tools to solve
thoseproblemsthatin earliertimes have been the subjectof
guesswork only"(Rorty,1982,p. 211).
Here is thematrixwhichthepost-warbabyboom came and
filled, producing an unequaled growth in the student
population. During the sixties,all departmentswere in
expansion. What was the trainingof those who obtained
teachingpositionsin philosophythen? They grew up with
Quine's disjunctivemotto:studyeitherhistoryof philosophy
or philosophy.The major part of the new professors

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 97

consideredthatanyreadingotherthanthatof themostrecent
articlesbearingtheircolleagues'names was not conduciveto
philosophicalpractice.As the leading figuresin linguistic
analysis admit themselves,a generation of uncultivated
intellectualswas put into place twentyyearsago. As demo-
graphic growthsoon slowed, most institutions today find
themselves blockedup by a mass of instructors nearingfifty,
whosecanonof excellenceonlyconsistsin rigorin argumenta-
tionwiththeensuinguniformity of methodand style.
Towards the middleof the seventies,the mentorsbecame
awarethattheycould no longerquite findpositionsfortheir
disciples.In orderto fullygraspthe featuresof the turnthat
presentsitselfhere,it is advisableto brieflydescribeeach of
the twoforceswhichQuine disjointed.The scientific philoso-
phy which he advocated has indeed transformed itselfintoan
art of the plea, and the historyof philosophythat he took
exceptionto, into phenomenology.What the Greeks called
"preserving phenomena"(diasozein taphainomena, Eudoxus) or
"following phenomena" tois
(akoloutheîn Aristotle),
phainoménois,
the "returnto thingsthemselves"to whichHusserlexhorted
us, thus finds itselfexcluded from rigorousphilosophical
discoursein America.This resultsfroman extremeconception
of truthas consensus-extreme,for what then is true, as
RichardRortyhas said, is whatyourcolleaguesare willingto
letyou say.The locus of truthunderstoodas consensusis the
articlesand the congresseswhereone showsoneselfoff.One
maydoubtthatCharlesPeircewouldrecognizehimselfin this
versionof his theory,which has been entirelyreduced to
professionalism. But the cleavage is there: "Our geniuses
inventproblemsand programsde novo,ratherthan finding
themin thethingsthemselves" (Rorty,1982,p. 218).

The Standing-Out
ofAnalysis
Once the gap separatingscientific
philosophyfromthe rest
has been institutionalized,
and scientificmethod has been

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98 SOCIAL RESEARCH

defined by analysis,it is not difficultto establishan inventory

of some of the outstandingtraitsof the discourse thatis held to
be serious. In the way of illustrations, here are four
characteristics,of which only the firstdirectlyresults from
scientism invested with national hopes. The others already
presuppose a degree of suspicion cast upon the exemplarityof
scientificrigor.
The deductivemodel.In a broad sense, this model is the ideal
which,withthe Greeks,gave rise to the typeof statementsthat
are called philosophical. It seems that Aristotle was less
optimisticthan Plato about the chances that a mortal has of
reasoning without fail and without dispersion from intuitive
principles. In the strict sense, the deductive model was
imposed by the Vienna Circle. Rudolf Carnap held that a
reasoning was deductive if there existed between two given
propositionsa relationof implicationsuch thatthe meaning of
the one could be obtained from the other by mere formal
analysis--on condition,to be sure, that what their relation of
implication must be has previously been defined. This
definitionof deduction in all its brevityis a formal principle
whichhas no need of specificlaws to be valid (Carnap held it to
be compatiblewiththe definitionof inductionin logic,but that
is another problem). Specific laws only intervenein order to
move froma firstpropositionto derived propositions.
Linguisticanalysis,at least in the second generation of the
Vienna Circle,thereforeaims at showingthe consequences of a
propositiontreatedas a principle.One does not examine what
a proposition speaks of, but which are the formal operations
which it enables. The analysis is rigorous if it allows one to
identifythe laws according to which a firstproposition gives
rise,or does not give rise,to secondaryeffectsof meaning. The
ideal- to which some professors of ethics still cling above
all- would be to discovera supreme propositionwhose formal
consequences might all be mapped out in the manner of
Einstein's universal formula,these consequences being appli-
cable, if not to every sentence claiming to be meaningful,at

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 99

least to any theoryof meaningwhetherphysical,ethical,or

political.Such a principleof principleswould allow one to
decide in matterslike the allocation of competenciesby
assigninga typeof sentenceto that typeof disciplineand,
hence,to thatacademicfaculty. Withina discipline,theperfect
deductivemethod would allow one to say what is a good
physical,ethical,or politicaldoctrine,and whatis a bad one.
Thus, Alan Gewirth's "principle of generic coherence"
(Gewirth,1978) servesto decide whatis a consistentand an
inconsistent thingto do, even in individualsituations.One no
longer sets much storein thecomingof an Einsteinof analytic
philosophy,but "researchprograms"for establishingsuch
disciplinaryprincipleswhich would be supreme in a genre
remainthe professional secretfora good numberof teachers
and authors.If the leadersof the fieldno longersubscribeto
this,it is because the scientists
alreadyrelegatedthe ideal of
universalcoherence,and of a formulathatwouldcaptureit,to
phantasms-or to paradigms,as theyhave been called since
Thomas Kuhn. The deductivemethodis the strategywhich
instituted a certainparadigmin modernscience.To acknowl-
edge this is alreadyto renouncethe canon institutedby the
greatViennese.
Thepleadingstyle.As the scientists recognizedthatWertneu-
tralität
had been embracedbytheirpredecessorsas an ideal,as
a value, precisely,philosophersdiscoveredan unexpected
nakedness of their own: the mantle of monochromatic
objectivity waswithdrawn fromthem.Theywerenotanymore
readyto renouncedeductivediscourse.However,as theywere
abandonedby theirphysicistheroes,theyfellback onto the
latter'sstyle.The new polychromia whichwas born fromthe
sixtiesresultsfromthepolymorphous causeswhichare pleaded
for. Today, the most widespreadphilosophicalstylein the
UnitedStatesis thatof litigation, and the mostoutstanding
traitof how it is statedis sallyingforth,standingout3in the
senseof attacking.
A good paperis one in whichone choosesa topicto plead or

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100 SOCIAL RESEARCH

argue for and an opponent to unseat. Like a lawyer, one

constructsan argument,one stakes out a claim, and one says
"I." The idea that one is holding forthmay be a mere opinion
or preference,the reasoning may lack any criticalsense, and
the knowledgebase, any historicalawareness- if in the exordia
and in the conclusion the words "I argue" and "I claim" are to
be found, one is assured of respectability.When the affinities
of philosophical discourse are thus displaced from the
laboratoryto the bar association,certainancienttraditionsfind
themselvespartiallyrehabilitated:Greek sophisticsand medi-
But in those two preceding cases, the aim was to
eval disputatio.
convince,while the pleading styleseeks to confound. One takes
an opponent to trialnot in order to persuade him,but to prove
thathe is in the wrong. "Philosophyis carried on as a coercive
activity,"writes Robert Nozick, a new star at Harvard.4 The
good argument- tightly constructed, in the guise of a
relentless deduction- is one which leaves the opponent
withoutany recourse. Therein it destroys the art of rallyingthe
contradictor, the rhetorical art. Sophistic techniques and,
generally, dialectical techniques aim at winning over the
antagonistto a cause; here, on the otherhand, the aim is to win
a cause.
As a matterof styleand skill,philosophical demonstration
may place itself at the service of any party. Here is how
Richard Rortydescribes these professionalsof argumentation
again:
[T]he able philosophershould be able to spot flawsin any
argumenthe hears. Further,he should be able to do thison
topicsoutsideofthoseusuallydiscussedin philosophy coursesas
wellas on "specifically
philosophical" issues.As a corollary,he
should be able to constructas good an argumentas can be
constructedfor anyview,no matterhow wrong-headed.The
ideal of philosophicalabilityis to see the entireuniverseof
possible assertionsin all their inferentialrelationsto one
another,and thus to be able to construct,or criticize,any
argument(Rorty,1982,p. 219).
That is the ideal of a corporation5 of technicians. Rorty

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 101

comparesthemto thecorporationof the Frenchinspecteurs

des
finances.
Just like the sophists again, analytic
The counter-tactics.
philosophers have developed the art of the counter-attack.
Insofaras thestrategy oftheticdiscourseis deductive,themost
efficienttactic of antitheticaldiscourse is that of the
counter-example. The opponentproducesa case whichdoes
not fall under the proposed deduction and which,if the
counter-exampleis pertinent,ruins that deduction. Laws,
therefore,have to be determinedaccordingto which one
might formallyestablish the conditions under which a
particularcase reallyinvalidatesa thesis.An examplewillbe
used to illustrateboth the tacticof the counter-example and
one of the subjectsin which this sort of argumentationis
practicedwitha vehemencenot alwaysworthyof a govern-
ment inspector.6The example is taken from the debate
opposingthe majorityof the feminists and the defendersof
the "rightto life."A spokeswomanfor the majoritydeclares
herselfreadyto admit,forthesakeof argument, thata fetusis
a person,and even thatit is a talentedperson. It does not
followthatthefetushas a rightto life.That can be shownby
thefollowing counter-example:

Supposethatyouwokeup one morning and foundthatyou

wereconnected to a talentedviolinist(becausehe had a rare
kidneydiseaseand onlyyouhad therightbloodtype)and the
MusicLover'sSocietyhad pluggedyou together. Whenyou
theysaid"Don'tworry,
protested, it'sonlyforninemonths, and
thenhe'llbe cured.Andyoucan'tunplughimbecausenowthat
theconnection hasbeenmade,he willdie ifyoudo."7

This counter-example is considerednot only to weaken the

positionof the defendersof lifebut also, moreover,to prove
therightto abortion.The middletermis therightof property.
You own yourbody,forit would be absurd to hold thatthe
personin the counter-example to whomthe sickpersonwas
connectedwouldnothave therightto unplughim.The story,

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102 SOCIAL RESEARCH

therefore,serves to establish that a human has the right to

dispose of his or her body like property,even when the life of
anotheris at stake,and thatconsequentlythe supportersof the
rightto life are not only guiltyof faultyreasoning,but wrong.
The art of the counter-example consists in granting the
opponent his premises and then showing that the conclusions
thathe draws fromthem do not followat all.
But it has proved difficultto establish with any precision
under which conditions a particularcase may serve to ruin a
general thesis. Hence, the frequent,and more modest, appeal
to intuition. One will say that the supposed obligation to
remain connected to a sick musician for nine months is
contraryto intuition,counter-intuitive.One obviouslycannot
help asking what knowledge that conformsto intuitionwould
be, and where it would come from.The least one could say is
that is not a popular question on Anglo-Saxon soil, and for
good reasons. It would cast doubt upon common sense; it
would oblige one to view the latter as a productof historical,
sociological,and psychologicalconstellationsratherthan as the
last instance in any search for legitimation;lastly,it would hit
an unanalyzed nerve of all analysis.That common sense might
be an ideology is a suspicion thatnone of the tendenciesI have
taken account of is capable of facing up to: not the older
pragmatism, not positivism,and not analysis. All of them
would cast it off, on the contrary, by invoking ordinary
language as that which offersthe last parameters for a more
sober philosophy. Thus, common sense would be that which
speaks in ordinarylanguage.
Ockham'srazor.The principle of parsimoniousnessstated by
William of Ockham deserves to be cited amongst the
outstanding traitsof analytic philosophy not only because it
expresses the ideal of a tightlywoven plea, but also because it
constitutesone of the veryrare intrusionsof a thinkerprior to
Quine into established discourse. It would be pointless to
multiplythe premises beyond those which are necessary: this
principle enjoys an exorbitantprestige today. It is exorbitant

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 103

becausetheinjunction to use premiseseconomically findsitself

extended to every possible figure of reasoning,and also
becauseitis tornfromtheuniverseof medievalphilosophy.It,
nevertheless,indicatestheideal of a succinctproofclearly,for
the "razor"mustcut offfroman argumentthe propositions
whichdo not relateto thebase of the cause in litigation. One
may already doubt that Ockham would have recognized
himselfin the nominalistlabel thathe is given;but to enroll
Ockhamin thecorporationof theinspecteurs desFinancesof the
Americanphilosophical establishment is to exertsomeviolence
on his innovativetalentswhichwere capturedby the name
given to him, inceptor
venerabais.
A comparablelistof categories-just as cursory,and just as
rhapsodical-can be drawnforthetendenciesof whichI have
said thattheyare termedEuropean,historical, Continental,or
phenomenological withoutany greatcare takento distinguish
them.As thedisagreement bearson theoriginof philosophical
problems-inventionof argumentsat the bar de novo,or
faithfulnessto thingsthemselves-one mayretainthe epithet
of phenomenology and ask whichare the existentialiawhich
characterizeitsbeing-in-the-new-
world.

The Existentialia in theUnitedStates

ofPhenomenology

Firstof all, it is a genre,and it is thatin severalsenses.If it

simplydesignatestheotherof analysis,itspurportedunitywill
be easier to discernfromoutside- for example, seen from
Harvard- thanfrominside.It wouldindeed be contradictory
that the other of claritydivide itselfby means of clearly
identifiablespecificdifferences.Seen fromwithin,judging
fromthe conferencetopics and the course catalogues,the
generic label of "phenomenology,"however, covers an
astonishing numberof species,even ifpeople do notgo as far
as to include historyof philosophyin it. At the annual
congressesof the societywhichbears the word"phenomenol-

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104 SOCIAL RESEARCH

ogy" in itsname, seminarsare held not onlyon Husserl and his

direct or indirect followers but also on Structuralism,
Nietzsche, and Freud, without forgetting the "interfaces"
whichseem to offerso many contemporarymodes of access to
the apeiron:"Phenomenology of X," or "Phenomenology and
X." To quote only the titlesof some of the presentationsat the
1984 conference of the Society for Phenomenology and
ExistentialPhilosophy,"X" may be replaced by Kant, Hegel,
Barthes, Foucault, criticaltheory,anti-humanism,deconstruc-
tion, cognitive psychology,education, ecology, or even the
televiseddebates between Reagan and Mondale. Phenomenol-
ogy has become a genus withmany species. It is also a "style"8
that one can give oneself, which in other academic circles
would run up against the walls in which peras, the goddess
Limit,ordinarilyencloses Anglo-Saxon respectability. When an
in
author inspired by Sade and Bataille read his texts frontof
this Society,the objection was made to him that he was in the
wrong country and that his place was rather in France. A
double forced extension of the genus [or genre], then, as a
class of species,and as a way of being, in whichonly the former
combines well with the most widely shared convictionof the
New World, that is, that limitsare an inhibitionof the Old
World.
If phenomenologyas a discipline is hospitable,its generosi-
ties are poorly returned by the institutions.Hence, a second
traitfollows,the conditionof diaspora.A surveyperformedten
years ago showed that the teaching community then only
considered nine philosophy departmentsout of eighty-sixin
the entire countryto be offeringa viable program in recent
and contemporaryEuropean philosophy (phenomenology in
the broad sense and Marxism).9 No one would contest that
since then the number has gone down further.The diasporais
thus of a geographical sort: the plane is the main working
instrument of any research seminar. It is also of an
institutionalsort. In the big state universities,one may easily
find three or four highlyspecialized professorsof contempo-

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 105

rarylogic, the same number teachingethical theories(for

instance,naturalist,deontologicalnon-naturalist, cognitivist,
linguistic and
non-cognitivist), only one teacher of the history
of philosophyfromthepre-socratics to thepost-moderns. The
latterwill typicallyhave the rank of AssistantProfessor,be
replacedeveryfourto six years,and be toldthathe wouldbe
bettersuitedto a historydepartment. The intellectualisolation
is, therefore,not to be construedas resultingonly from
geographicaldistances;it stemsmore fromthe phenomenon
of the'token',thatis,thegrantingforform'ssake of a position
to the disciplineswhichare prioror externalto the linguistic
turn in philosophy.10The two factors,geographicaland
institutional,are de factoindissociable,and the marginsof
analyticphilosophyare preferablylocated on the East and
Westcoastsof thecountry.
Anothertraitwould be willingsatellization. As the curious
heading of "Continental philosophy" indicates,everything that
circulatesunderthatlabel bearsan importmarking.One goes
to,and continuesto go to,Freiburg,Frankfurt, theCollègede
France, and the rue d'Ulm- the cardinal points of this
imaginarycontinent-to bringback the ipsissima verbaof the
respectivemaster.This satellization
in factprecededtheriseof
the actual master-thinkers.A considerablepercentageof the
Americanphilosopherswho call themselvesor are called
phenomenologists- a percentagewhichis difficult to reckon
withany precision-was recruitedamidstformerThomists.
Twentyyears ago still,the quadrant in questionconnected
Chantilly,Louvain, Munich, and Freiburgin Switzerland,
instead.The eventsof thesixtieshad muchto do withthisnew
staking-out of the marking-points. To the corridorof ideas
coming from the East another most be added, whose
is
importance underestimated in Europe. The latterrepro-
ducesthedata ofthephysicalmap oftheworldmorefaithfully
onto the phantasmaticmap. As is known,in America,the
Orientis to the west.In Californiaabove all, the gods whose
nothingnessis contemplatedin Kyotoare closer to people's

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106 SOCIAL RESEARCH

hearts than the one whose Being is proven in Louvain.

Consequently,phenomenologistswithbroad horizonsfound in
Zen Buddhism fitting nourishment for their thought-
experiments- a philosophical monstrosityfor any Kantian.
The natural settingof the exchange with the Asian schools is
the Universityof Hawaii, whichnotablydischargesitselfof this
responsibilityby publishing a good journal. To speak of
satellizationdoes not mean that innovativework in phenome-
nology is lacking in the United States. But, if only because of
the lineage which is still short, this work still relies on
vocabularies and schemes acquired elsewhere.
The spread of phenomenologicaldiscourse can unfold itself,
lastly, according to stakes other than philosophical ones.
Therein lies one of the benefitsof the conditionof diasporaand
satellization.From this a fourth trait follows,that of faculty
dispersion. Its ontogenesis may be narrated in few words, a
narration scanning the meetings with students attemptingto
develop a study program. The typical personal itinerary
produces a forced interdisciplinarity:the studentregistersin a
philosophy department in her geographical area; instead of
the Truth that she was searching for, all that is offered are
linguistic analyses which ultimatelyare tiresome; then she
changes disciplines and ends up writing a thesis entitled
"Phenomenologyof MobyDick,"or of class struggle,or of the
paternal complex. Following all this she will be hired in a
departmentof literature,social sciences,or psychologyand will
satisfyin turn the disappointed philosophical aspirations of a
new generation. From many angles, the Continentaltradition
is bettertaught,thus,outside of philosophydepartmentsthan
withinthem. With all classificatorycaution, one may say that
the work of mediation of literary theory was mainly
accomplished by and around Paul de Man, and that of the
social sciences,by AlfredSchütz- both of European origin,it is
true. In the human sciences,the situationis too complex for a
name to be cited as a marking-point.
The numerous forms of dispersion give rise to equally

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 107

numerouspalliatives. Supposedlycharitablesponsorsare there

to supportjournals,colloquiums,and publications of all kinds,
join togetherin associationswhichare half
and the specialists
Masoniclodges,half familialhomes. Socializationis effected
through"circles"-by the "NietzscheSociety,"the "Husserl
Circle,"the "Heidegger,""Sartre,"or "Merleau-Ponty" Circle.
Considering thenames of these it
figures, is notentirelywrong
to describethe cleavage dividingphilosophicalAmericaas a
continentaldivide.

"Sincewe have beena conversation

..."

If duringthe fifties the tendencywas to run to the shelters

fromthe suspicionof anti-American ideas, and during the
sixtiesit was to consolidate the scientismwhichissued from
thatsuspicion,whatis happeningtoday?Evidenceshowsthat
scientism in philosophy,evenifithas turnedintotheartof the
plea, has lostnone of itsprestige.But one is also witnessing
a
slowdiversificationof discourse.For a fewyears,thishas taken
on theshape of an open powerstrugglewithintheassociation
of philosophyprofessors, theAmericanPhilosophicalAssocia-
tion.
This astonishingstruggle goes on by means of the
mechanismthrough which Americans have shaped their
democracysince its beginning:parliamentarydeliberation.
The strugglemainlyplaysitselfout in theannualcongressesof
the profession,which bring togetherseveral thousandsof
philosopherseach time. In order to have historicaland
phenomenologicalmethods approved, one has to move
straightawayontotheterrainof elections,commissions, secret
or open votes,and ballots handed in at assembliesor by
mail- in otherwords,onto the terrainof [legal]proceedings.
By means of a carefullyorchestratedusage of these proce-
dures,theoppositionwas able to wina seriesof victoriessince
1978 in thegameof representation. This oppositionhas come

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108 SOCIAL RESEARCH

together under the label of "pluralists." Who are they? To

know this contestingcoalition, it is enough to remember the
successive purges since the war and draw up the list of those
who were rejected.The "pluralists"were, therefore,born from
an alliance between classical pragmatists,historiansof Euro-
pean philosophy,speculativemetaphysicianswho were follow-
ers of Whitehead, and phenomenologistsin the specificsense.
One should not believe eitherthatall these groups demanding
to be recognized today profess Leftist or subversive critical
doctrines,or that the old obsession withthe defense of values
has disappeared. In the armchair battles at the conferences'
business meetings,the two parties sometimes call each other
Communists.
To the vanquished of the last decades, two groups must be
added who, for differentbut complementaryreasons, found
themselveson the victor'sside, yetwho sometimessympathize
with the pluralist cause. I have said that the two ideological
sheltersin the McCarthyera were science and religion.Among
the philosopherswho received theirtrainingduring the sixties,
some were subsequently driven to supplement the anti-
intellectualismof their studies by auto-didact activity.These
philosophers were not as easily intimidatedby the "analytic"
norm, so that their independence in voting sometimesmakes
for the sorrow of their former masters. The other newly
emboldened ex-victorsare the intellectualsfor whom religious
affiliationhad served as a shield. Their number is impressive:
in the directories of the profession, the specialization most
frequentlyreferred to is "philosophy of religion." To this
contingent must be added those among the leaders of the
pluralist revolt whose motives are more or less tacitlyof a
religious order. The importance of this factor should not be
surprising in a country whose percentage of inhabitants
declaring themselves to be believers is, after India's, the
highest in the world- ninety percent- and where almost a
third of philosophy courses are given in Catholic establish-

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 109

merits(an introductionto philosophyis compulsoryfor

studentsin all disciplines,includingscienceand medicine).
The neweclecticism of philosophyin theUnitedStatesdoes
not only manifestitself in the strugglefor institutional
recognition.It also appears in publicationswhosetone would
have been inconceivableten years ago. This is because the
misadventure of a once pure and hard discoursewhichhas
fallentodayto the level of mere techniquesof argumenthas
ended up confusingthe line of demarcationbetweenanalysis
and itsother.
This misadventure in exemplaryfashionbythe
is illustrated
itineraryof Richard Rorty. Until recentlya professorat
Princeton University- in one of the bastions, then, of
philosophyseekingto be scientific, and its successivefash-
ions-he firstpublishedworkon the "linguistic turn"and its
consequences. Then, in Philosophyand the Mirror of Nature
(1979),he madehimselftheadvocateofthe"edifying" thought
of Dewey,Wittgenstein, and Heideggeragainstthe epistemo-
logicalheritageand its contemporary heir,analyticmethod.
Afterthisdisenchantment, it was onlynaturalthathe resign
fromPrinceton.But howhas he re-oriented himself?Contrary
to whatone mightexpect,he has notjoined forceswithanyof
thetendenciesin the"pluralist" coalition.He nowcallshimself,
not withouta strongdose of irony,it is true,a literarycritic.
His disenchantment has thereforeleftthe either/or between
rigorousphilosophyand its otherintact, thatbetweenscience
and letters.He continuesto hold thatthegap betweenanalysis
and phenomenology is as deep as thatwhichseparatesbiology
fromclassicalstudies,forexample.Onlynowthatthescientific
ideal has twisteditselfintothestyleof theplea, he can unmask
analyticphilosophyas the public-relations agency of the
sciences,and Continentalphilosophyas thatof literature.On
eitherside of the Atlantic,or of the Channel,thosewho call
themselvesand are called philosophershave in truthbeen
lawyers,knowingly in the case of the phenomenologists and
theirassociates,and unknowingly in thatof the Vienneseand

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110 SOCIAL RESEARCH

theircohorts.This allowsRortyto plead fora new cause: the

conceptionof historyas an uninterrupted conversationwith
multiplevoices. He could have quoted Hölderlin ("Seitein
Gesprächwirsind . . . ") in the poem "Friedensfeier"
but he calls
thispolyphonysometimeshermeneu tics,sometimespragma-
of
tism.The amalgamation Dewey,Heidegger,and the later
Wittgenstein underscoresquite sufficiently not onlythatthe
disjunctionbetween the scientific
mode and the othermode
remainsuntouched,but also thatthisothermode remainsa
genrewhichis describableas such. At bottom,the authorsof
thisgenreall seek the same thing:to edifythe reader.From
JacquesDerrida,Rortyretainedthatit would be pointlessto
searchfora firsttextbeneaththe textualtraceswhichmade
history-a firsttext which most logical positivistsprecisely
hoped to be able to bringto light.But one may doubt that
JacquesDerridawouldbe veryhappyto findhimselfannexed
to a pragmatismwhich here again is defined by the
parliamentary model: "For the pragmatists, the patternof all
inquiry- scientific
as well as moral- is deliberationconcerning
of variousconcretealternatives"
therelativeattractions (Rorty,
1982, p. 164). The continentalriftdoes indeed continueto
separate those who know what they are doing from the
others-exceptthatnow thosewho knoware the pragmatists,
phenomenologists, Structuralists,
post-Structuralists,literary
critics, of
archaeologists knowledge and theoristsof communi-
cativeactioncombined,and whattheyare doingis edifying the
uninterruptedpoem of Western civilization.The others
continueto believe thatsomewherethereexistsan ultimate
truthto be discoveredand thatthescienceshold thekeyto it.
Othercontemporary developmentscould be cited to show
thatthe old confidencein analyticrigorhas come upon hard
times,and thatthe contoursof institutionalized discourseare
becomingvague. The physicaland intellectualpresenceof
Paul Ricoeurin the UnitedStatesno doubthas somethingto
do withit. Thus,JohnSearle,the championof the theoryof
speechacts,nowspeaksof intentionality, and JaakkoHintikka,

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 111

the logician of the semanticsof possible worlds, of the

world.But it would be just as easy to showthattheseare
life-
borrowings of terminologyratherthangenuinedialogueswith
Husserl.This is so because the continental riftseparatingthe
twodiscursive universes,evenifitis overdetermined byeffects
of power,remainsfirstof all of a philosophicalorder.In order
to convince oneself of that, it should suffice to read
Hans-GeorgGadamerhereand Donald Davidson(1984) there
on language and interpretation, or Max Scheler here and
Thomas Nagel (1979) thereon ethicalproblems,or lastlyKarl
Jaspers here and Robert Nozick there on as modest an
assortment of problemsas self-identity,the conditionsof free
will,of knowledgeand of beingtoutcourt,withoutforgetting
thoseof philosophy.One willthennoticethatthe bifurcation
bears on the method applied to them and the type of
thatis soughtfor,at least,if not alwayson the
intelligibility
actualquestionsraised.A researchinstitute witha broadfocus,
as the Max PlanckInstituteat Starnbergwas untilthreeyears
ago, is without doubt alone capable of putting these
heteromorphous languagesto work.Indeed,onlythedisciples
of JürgenHabermas seem to me to pursue a conversation
betweenAnglo-Saxonand Continentaltraditionsin an alert,
continuous, and nuancedmanner-even iftheyare guidedby
a specificinterest,thatof a theoryof communicative action.
The place of birthof thisexchangeis not to be foundon the
otherside of theAtlanticbut of the Rhine.
Translatedby CharlesT. Wolfe

Notes

Cf. Bruce Kuckuck, The Rise ofAmericanPhilosophy

(New Haven:
Yale University Press,1977).
2
Quotedby ElizabethYoung-Bruehl(1982), p. 295.
['Sallyingforth'and 'standingout' renderthesingletermsaillie,
whichthe authorplayson, beginningwiththe titleof thissection:

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112 SOCIAL RESEARCH

"Lessailliesdel'analyse"couldalso be renderedas "The Sallying- Forth

of Analysis";analysishas "outstanding traits"(traits
saillants).]
RobertNozick(1981), p. 4. He adds that,"The terminology of
philosophical art is coercive:arguments are powerful and best when
they
5
are knockdown, arguments forceyou to a conclusion..."
['Corporation' should be taken in itsoldersense,akinto 'guild'
or 'bodyof workingpeople'.The originaltermis simply'corps', used
in thesenseof,forexample,'corpsdiplomatique1.]
6
['Inspecteurdes finances'.]
The argumenthas been developed by JudithThomson and
summarizedbyJaniceMoulton(1983), pp. 159ff.
8
[As the author indicatesin the beginningof this section,
different sensesof the word'genre'are at work:it is used to mean
'genus' theprecedingsentence;here,'sedonner
in un genre'is to give
oneselfa style.]
9 These nine
departmentswere to be found, in order of
preference, in the followinguniversities:Northwestern,Yale,
Pennsylvania State,New School for Social Research,University of
Texas (Austin),Duquesne,BostonUniversity, University of Califor-
nia (San Diego),and SUNY (StonyBrook);cf.Solomon(1975).
10An of Illinoisat Chicago.The
examplewouldbe theUniversity
philosophy facultyare a totalof nineteen professors. Of these,eleven
are specializedin philosophyof language,epistemology, and logic,
fivein philosophy of law or ethics,one in aesthetics,and onlytwoin
historicaldisciplines:one in Greek philosophyand the other in
"Existentialism,Phenomenology, and Marxism."

Bibliography

intoTruth
Davidson,D., Inquiries (NewYork:Oxford
andInterpretation
University Press,1984).
Gewirth,A., Reasonand Morality (Chicago: University of Chicago
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Kucklick,B., The Rise of American Philosophy (New Haven: Yale
University Press,1977).
Moulton,J.,"A Paradigmof Philosophy: The Adversary Method,"in
Harding, S. and Hintikka, M.B., eds., DiscoveringReality
(Dordrecht:Reidel,1983).
(New York: CambridgeUniversity
Nagel,T. , MortalQuestions Press,
1979).

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 CONCERNING PHILOSOPHY 113

Nozick, R., Philosophical

Explanations(Cambridge,MA: Harvard
Press,1981).
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Rorty,R., Consequencesof Pragmatism (Minneapolis:Universityof
MinnesotaPress,1982).
Solomon, R., "Graduate Study in ContinentalPhilosophy in
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Young-Bruehl, E., Hannah Arendt:ForLoveof World(New Haven:
the
Yale UniversityPress,1982).

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