- Table View
- List View
The Hedgehog And The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History
by Isaiah BerlinIsaiah Berlin's classic essay on Tolstoy - an exciting new edition with new criticism and a foreword.'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.' This fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Tolstoy. There have been various interpretations of Archilochus' fragment; Isaiah Berlin has simply used it, without implying anything about the true meaning of the words, to outline a fundamental distinction that exists in mankind, between those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things (foxes) and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system (hedgehogs). When applied to Tolstoy, the image illuminates a paradox of his philosophy of history, and shows why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. Tolstoy was by nature a fox, but he believed in being a hedgehog.
The Hedgehog And The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History
by Isaiah BerlinIsaiah Berlin's classic essay on Tolstoy - an exciting new edition with new criticism and a foreword.'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.' This fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Tolstoy. There have been various interpretations of Archilochus' fragment; Isaiah Berlin has simply used it, without implying anything about the true meaning of the words, to outline a fundamental distinction that exists in mankind, between those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things (foxes) and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system (hedgehogs). When applied to Tolstoy, the image illuminates a paradox of his philosophy of history, and shows why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. Tolstoy was by nature a fox, but he believed in being a hedgehog.
The Hedgehog And The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (W&N Essentials)
by Isaiah BerlinIsaiah Berlin's classic essay on Tolstoy - an exciting new edition with new criticism and a foreword.'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.' This fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Tolstoy. There have been various interpretations of Archilochus' fragment; Isaiah Berlin has simply used it, without implying anything about the true meaning of the words, to outline a fundamental distinction that exists in mankind, between those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things (foxes) and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system (hedgehogs). When applied to Tolstoy, the image illuminates a paradox of his philosophy of history, and shows why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. Tolstoy was by nature a fox, but he believed in being a hedgehog.
The Hedgehog And The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (W&N Essentials)
by Isaiah BerlinIsaiah Berlin's classic essay on Tolstoy - an exciting new edition with new criticism and a foreword.'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.' This fragment of Archilochus, which gives this book its title, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Tolstoy. There have been various interpretations of Archilochus' fragment; Isaiah Berlin has simply used it, without implying anything about the true meaning of the words, to outline a fundamental distinction that exists in mankind, between those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things (foxes) and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system (hedgehogs). When applied to Tolstoy, the image illuminates a paradox of his philosophy of history, and shows why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics. Tolstoy was by nature a fox, but he believed in being a hedgehog.
The Hedgehog Diaries: ‘The most poignant and heartwarming memoir of the year’
by Sarah Sands"If you buy one book this year make sure it's this one... Enchanting."Daily Mail"This charming book weaves hedgehogs into our hearts, our lives and our national identity."John WitherowA few days after her elderly father is admitted to hospital, Sarah Sands and her grandson find a poorly hedgehog in the garden. They name her Peggy, and her fate becomes a matter of pressing concern.There is something about hedgehogs - homely and yet mysterious, prickly and defenceless, wild and tame - that makes us feel deeply sympathetic to them.Having managed to outlive roads, dogs, strimmers and pesticides, hedgehogs are now an endangered species. For Sarah Sands, our failure to protect them is a symptom of our alienation from the living world.But all is not yet lost. In this charming book, Sands explores the meaning and morals of hedgehogs, and finds, in hedgehog world, a source of deep solace and wisdom.
The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History - Second Edition
by Isaiah Berlin"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." This ancient Greek aphorism, preserved in a fragment from the poet Archilochus, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Leo Tolstoy and the philosophy of history, the subject of the epilogue to War and Peace. Although there have been many interpretations of the adage, Berlin uses it to mark a fundamental distinction between human beings who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things and those who relate everything to a central, all-embracing system. Applied to Tolstoy, the saying illuminates a paradox that helps explain his philosophy of history: Tolstoy was a fox, but believed in being a hedgehog. One of Berlin's most celebrated works, this extraordinary essay offers profound insights about Tolstoy, historical understanding, and human psychology.This new edition features a revised text that supplants all previous versions, English translations of the many passages in foreign languages, a new foreword in which Berlin biographer Michael Ignatieff explains the enduring appeal of Berlin's essay, and a new appendix that provides rich context, including excerpts from reviews and Berlin's letters, as well as a startling new interpretation of Archilochus's epigram.
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities
by Stephen Jay GouldIn his final book and his first full-length original title since Full House in 1996, the eminent paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould offers a surprising and nuanced study of the complex relationship between our two great ways of knowing: science and the humanities, twin realms of knowledge that have been divided against each other for far too long. To establish his two protagonists, Gould draws from a seventh century b.c. proverb attributed to the Greek soldier-poet Archilochus that said roughly, "The fox devises many strategies; the hedgehog knows one great and effective strategy." While emphatically rejecting any simplistic attempt to assign either science or the humanities to one or the other of these approaches to knowledge, Gould uses this ancient concept to demonstrate that neither strategy can work alone, but that these seeming opposites can be conjoined into a common enterprise of tremendous unity and power. In building his case, Gould shows why the common assumption of an inescapable conflict between science and the humanities (in which he includes religion) is false, mounts a spirited rebuttal to the ideas that his intellectual rival E. O. Wilson set forth in his book Consilience, and explains why the pursuit of knowledge must always operate upon the bedrock of nature's randomness.The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox is a controversial discourse, rich with facts and observations gathered by one of the most erudite minds of our time.
The Hegel Variations
by Fredric JamesonIn this major new study, philosopher and cultural theorist Fredric Jameson offers an innovative reading of a book that forms part of the bedrock of modern Western thought: Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.Whereas other writers have interpreted the Phenomenology as a rigidly closed system, Jameson discovers it to be a more fluid, open-ended work. Hegel's mind is revealed to be a less systematic mechanism than normally thought, one whose ideas never solidify into pure abstractions. The conclusion of the Phenomenology, on the aftermath of the French Revolution, is examined as a provisional stalemate between the political and the social--a situation from which Jameson draws important lessons for our own age.From the Hardcover edition.
The Heidegger Case: On Philosophy and Politics
by Tom Joseph Rockmore Margolis[These] essays together form an extraordinary response, and radical but not self-righteous challenge, to Heidegger's unambiguous complicity with Hitler and Nazism. . . . This book will provoke intense dialogue and controversy about issues which, for too long, too many philosophers have chosen either to gloss over or ignore. --Ronald E. SantoniThe relation between Martin Heidegger's philosophical thought and his political commitment has been widely discussed in recent years, following the publication of Victor Farìas's controversial study, Heidegger and Nazism, published in this country by Temple University Press. The Heidegger Case is a collection of original essays, by both American and European philosophers, on issues raised by Heidegger's involvement with the Nazis. The contributors consider such matters as the relationship between Heidegger's philosophical theories and his public statements and activities, the ways in which his ideas on social and political life compare with those of other philosophers, and the role of philosophy with respect to politics.
The Heidegger Change: On the Fantastic in Philosophy (SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought)
by Catherine MalabouBehind Martin Heidegger's question of Being lies another one not yet sufficiently addressed in continental philosophy: change. Catherine Malabou, one of France's most inventive contemporary philosophers, explores this topic in the writings of Heidegger through the themes of metamorphosis, migration, exchange, and modification, finding and articulating a radical theory of ontico-ontological transformability. The Heidegger Change sketches the implications of this theory for a wide range of issues of central concern to the humanities—capitalism, the gift, ethics, suffering, the biological, technology, imagination, and time. Not since the writings of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas has the work of Heidegger been the subject of such inventive interpretation and original theory in its own right.
The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1: Translations of the Principal Sources, with Philosophical Commentary
by A. A. Long D. N. SedleyVolume I presents the texts in new translations by the authors, and these are accompanied by a philosophical and historical commentary designed for use by all readers, including those with no background in the classical world. With its glossary and indexes, this volume can stand alone as an independent tool of study.
The Helmholtz Curves: Tracing Lost Time (Forms of Living)
by Henning SchmidgenThis book reconstructs the emergence of the phenomenon of “lost time” by engaging with two of the most significant time experts of the nineteenth century: the German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz and the French writer Marcel Proust.Its starting point is the archival discovery of curve images that Helmholtz produced in the context of pathbreaking experiments on the temporality of the nervous system in 1851. With a “frog drawing machine,” Helmholtz established the temporal gap between stimulus and response that has remained a core issue in debates between neuroscientists and philosophers.When naming the recorded phenomena, Helmholtz introduced the term temps perdu, or lost time. Proust had excellent contacts with the biomedical world of late-nineteenth-century Paris, and he was familiar with this term and physiological tracing technologies behind it. Drawing on the machine philosophy of Deleuze, Schmidgen highlights the resemblance between the machinic assemblages and rhizomatic networks within which Helmholtz and Proust pursued their respective projects.
The Herb Kohl Reader: Awakening the Heart of Teaching
by Herbert KohlThe best writing from a lifetime in the trenches and at the typewriter, from the renowned and much-beloved National Book Award–winning educator. In more than forty books on subjects ranging from social justice to mathematics, morality to parenthood, Herb Kohl has earned a place as one of our foremost &“educators who write.&” With Marian Wright Edelman, Mike Rose, Lisa Delpit, and Vivian Paley among his fans, Kohl is &“a singular figure in education,&” as William Ayers says in his foreword, &“it&’s clear that Herb Kohl&’s influence has resonated, echoed, and multiplied.&” Now, for the first time, readers can find collected in one place key essays and excerpts spanning the whole of Kohl&’s career, including practical as well as theoretical writings. Selections come from Kohl&’s classic 36 Children, his National Book Award–winning The View from the Oak (co-authored with his wife Judy), and all his best-known and beloved books. The Herb Kohl Reader is destined to become a major new resource for old fans and a new generation of teachers and parents. &“Kohl has created his own brand of teaching . . . [He is] a remarkable teacher who discovered in his first teaching assignment that in education he could keep playing with toys, didn&’t have to stop learning, and could use what he knew in the service of others.&” —Lisa Delpit, The New York Times &“An infinitely vulnerable and honest human being who has made it his vocation to peddle hope.&” —Jonathan Kozol
The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life: Commentaries on the Writings of Nichiren (SGI President Ikeda's Lecture Series)
by Daisaku IkedaWhere have we come from and where do we go? Why are human beings born? Are our lives just random events or do they have some greater purpose? What is the meaning of death? Nichiren Buddhism, based on the Lotus Sutra, is a teaching of hope that provides answers to these and other important questions for modern life. Ranked among the most important works in Mahayana Buddhism, Nichiren’s 13th-century writings were revolutionary. They sought to give people a deep sense of confidence and self-reliance in this lifetime by exploring the topics of death and eternal life. In his The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life, Nichiren explains the ultimate Buddhist view, which frees people from both their fear of death and their unhealthy attachment to self. Daisaku Ikeda’s simple and straightforward commentary brings alive this important writing for the modern world. Thoughtful people of all faiths will resonate with his compassionate insights on the universal teaching of happiness that is Nichiren Buddhism.
The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat
by Santiago ZabalaContemporary philosopher—analytic as well as continental-tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style. Tugendhat was one of Martin Heidegger's last pupils and his least obedient, pursuing a new and controversial critical technique. Tugendhat took Heidegger's destruction of Being as presence and developed it in analytic philosophy, more specifically in semantics. Only formal semantics, according to Tugendhat, could answer the questions left open by Heidegger.Yet in doing this, Tugendhat discovered the latent "hermeneutic nature of analytic philosophy"-its post-metaphysical dimension—in which "there are no facts, but only true propositions." What Tugendhat seeks to answer is this: What is the meaning of thought following the linguistic turn? Because of the rift between analytic and continental philosophers, very few studies have been written on Tugendhat, and he has been omitted altogether from several histories of philosophy. Now that these two schools have begun to reconcile, Tugendhat has become an example of a philosopher who, in the words of Richard Rorty, "built bridges between continents and between centuries."Tugendhat is known more for his philosophical turn than for his phenomenological studies or for his position within analytic philosophy, and this creates some confusion regarding his philosophical propensities. Is Tugendhat analytic or continental? Is he a follower of Wittgenstein or Heidegger? Does he belong in the culture of analysis or in that of tradition? Santiago Zabala presents Tugendhat as an example of merged horizons, promoting a philosophical historiography that is concerned more with dialogue and less with classification. In doing so, he places us squarely within a dialogic culture of the future and proves that any such labels impoverish philosophical research.
The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse
by Tsenay SerequeberhanHermeneutics is a crucial but neglected perspective in African philosophy. Here, Tsenay Serequeberhan engages post-colonial African literature and the ideas of the African liberation struggle with critically-used insights from the European philosophical tradition. Continuing the work of Theophilus Okere and Okonda Okolo, this book attempts to overcome the debate between ethnophilosophy and professional philosophy, demonstrating that the promise of African philosophy lies with the critical development of the African hermeneutical perspective.
The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health: Steps Towards a Philosophy of Medical Practice (The International Library of Bioethics #97)
by Fredrik SvenaeusThis is the first monograph to deal with medicine as a form of hermeneutics, now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, including a whole new chapter on medical ethics. The book offers a comprehensive philosophical argument why good medical practice cannot be curtailed to scientific investigations of the body but is a form of clinical hermeneutics performed by health-care professionals in dialogue with their patients. Medical hermeneutics is rooted in a phenomenology of illness which acknowledges and proceeds from the ill party’s bodily feelings, everyday life-world circumstances and self-understanding in aiming to restore health.The author shows how the works of classical phenomenologists and hermeneuticians – Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur – may be employed to understand how medical diagnosis is enveloped by professional empathy and clinical judgement and developed by scientific investigations of the patient’s bodily condition. Health and illness are ultimately considered to be ways of feeling at home or not at home in the world, and such experiences are the starting point of medical hermeneutics when aiming to make best use of scientific knowledge. The book is aimed at researchers and teachers in philosophy of medicine and medical ethics, and at physicians, nurses and other health-care professionals meeting with patients in ethically complex and challenging situations. Phenomenology and hermeneutics, most often considered as methods belonging to the humanities, are shown to be of vital importance for the understanding of medical practice and ethical dilemmas of health care.
The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity: Figures and Themes
by G. B. MadisonWhat you, Dear Reader, are about to embark upon is a smorgasbord of ideas. Not just any old smorgasbord, however. Most certainly not one of those which advertise themselves to the unwary customer as offering 250 different specialties "from around the world." No, the smorgasbord offered up here for your delectation is a coherent and consistent one, including only a few select items, like an all-Chinese or all-Swedish one. All the dishes have been prepared in the same mental kitchen, with the same, or complementary, spices and seasonings, and prepared with the same, or complementary, cooking techniques. However, just as some people are not attracted to spicy foods, so some people won't care for what is served up to them here. If, though, you believe that it is high time that philosophy abandoned the stock, fatty concoctions it has traditionally served up in its metaphysical soup kitchens (as William James referred to them), then you should definitely appreciate what is here offered for your dégustation. This book, I say, is like a smorgasbord--in that it is not like a formal, six-course dinner; there is no special order in which the dishes need be consumed.
The Hermes Complex: Philosophical Reflections on Translation (Perspectives on Translation)
by Charles Le BlancWhen Hermes handed over to Apollo his finest invention, the lyre, in exchange for promotion to the status of messenger of the gods, he relinquished the creativity that gave life to his words.The trade-off proved frustrating: Hermes chafed under the obligation to deliver the ideas and words of others and resorted to all manner of ruses in order to assert his presence in the messages he transmitted. His theorizing descendants, too, allow their pretentions to creatorship to interfere with the actual business of reinventing originals in another language.Just as the Hermes of old delighted in leading the traveller astray, so his descendants lead their acolytes, through thickets of jargon, into labyrinths of eloquence without substance.Charles Le Blanc possesses the philosophical tools to dismantle this empty eloquence: he exposes the inconsistencies, internal contradictions, misreadings, and misunderstandings rife in so much of the current academic discourse en translation, and traces the failings of this discourse back to its roots in the anguish of having traded authentic creativity for mere status.
The Hero in History: A Study in Limitation and Possibility
by Sydney HookThe interaction of the individual in history and politics has posed major theoretical questions of historical analysis for the past two centuries: is social destiny shaped by forces beyond the power of the individual, or can the future be mastered by collective effort under the outstanding leadership of heroic men and women? In this classic study, a major philosopher and social theorist of the twentieth century offers a searching examination of the conditions under which individuals make choices that significantly alter the course of historical events and presents a scathing critique of various forms of social determinism that deny the individual freedom of action or a decisive role in history.The myth of the hero as the savior of the tribe or nation, as Hook notes, is older than written history. Until the ninteenth century, the hero functioned not merely as a cult figure but as a principle of historical explanation, a key to the rise and fall of countries and even of cultures. The exaggerations and omissions of this point of view produced an equally simplistic reaction with the formulation of determinist historiographies in which physical, racial, social, and economic forces replaced individuals as the dynamic factors in the development of events. Hook singles out orthodox Marxism as the most all-encompassing determinist system and subjects the historical thinking of Engels, Plekhanov, and Trotsky to sharp and meticulous scrutiny. Using the Russian Revolution as a test case, Hook observes that while the February 1917 Revolution was an inevitable development, the October revolution was, according to the best historical evidence, contingent upon the personality and actions of Lenin.In his 1978 reconsideration of the subject of heroism, appearing new to this edition, Hook defines a middle ground between the extremes of voluntarism and determinism that explains why the presence of strong personalities are decisive under certain conditions while under others key actors would appear to be almost interchangeable. He points us toward an understanding of a fascinating problem in history and raises essential questions about the role of "great" men and women in a democracy. The Hero in History will be of interest to intellectual historians, philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists.
The Heroic Heart
by Tod LindbergWhat does it mean to be a hero? In The Heroic Heart, Tod Lindberg traces the quality of heroic greatness from its most distant origin in human prehistory to the present day. The designation of "hero" once conjured mainly the prowess of conquerors and kings slaying their enemies on the battlefield. Heroes in the modern world come in many varieties, from teachers and mentors making a lasting impression on others by giving of themselves, to firefighters no less willing than their ancient counterparts to risk life and limb. They don't do so to assert a claim of superiority over others, however. Rather, the modern heroic heart acts to serve others and save others. The spirit of modern heroism is generosity, what Lindberg calls "the caring will," a primal human trait that has flourished alongside the spread of freedom and equality.Through its intimate portraits of historical and literary figures and its subtle depiction of the most difficult problems of politics, The Heroic Heart offers a startlingly original account of the passage from the ancient to the modern world and the part the heroic type has played in it. Lindberg deftly combines social criticism and moral philosophy in a work that ranks with such classics as Thomas Carlyle's nineteenth-century On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History and Joseph Campbell's twentieth-century The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The Hidden Academic Curriculum and Inequality in Early Education: How Class, Race, Teacher Interactions, and Friendship Influence Student Success (Routledge Research in Educational Equality and Diversity)
by Karen Phelan KozlowskiDrawing on a rich ethnographic study conducted in first grade classrooms in the US, this book reveals the potentially invisible, yet significant ways that race and social class impact student success in the earliest years of their schooling. The Hidden Academic Curriculum and Inequality in Early Education: How Class, Race, Teacher Interactions, and Friendship Influence Student Success explores key differences observed between the classroom interactions and academic behaviors of racially, socially, and ethnically diverse first grade students. Chapters offer in-depth analysis of the ways in which classed and racialized coaching by families, differentiated teacher-student interactions, and racially segregated friendships play out in the school environment, and ultimately influence a child’s ability to decode the academic hidden curriculum. This in turn, dictates a child’s understanding and ability to perform the specific skills associated with academic success. Ultimately, the text highlights the critical need for improved understanding of how in- and out-of-school factors impact child behaviors, and offers key recommendations to prevent the perpetuation of racial and socioeconomic inequalities in schools and classrooms. This insightful volume will be of particular interest to postgraduate students, researchers, and academics in the fields of Early Childhood Education and the Sociology of Education. Those with a focus on racial, ethnic, and social inequalities more broadly, will also find the book of interest.
The Hidden Face of God: How Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth
by Gerald L. SchroederGerald Schroeder, an MIT-trained scientist who has worked in both physics and biology, has emerged in recent years as one of the most popular and accessible apostles for the melding of science and religion. He first reconciled science and faith as different perspectives on a single whole in The Science of God. Now, in The Hidden Face of God, Schroeder takes a bold step forward, to show that science, properly understood, provides positive reasons for faith. Recent research in biology, chemistry, physics, and neuroscience contains unmistakable hints about the ultimate nature of reality. Simply put, we now know not only that behind matter lies energy, but also that behind energy lies wisdom. Scientists have touched on this wisdom in the laboratory, and its implications are awesome. From the wisdom encoded in DNA and analyzed by information science, to the wisdom unveiled in the fantastic complexity of cellular life, to the wisdom inherent in human consciousness, The Hidden Face of God offers a tour of the best of modern science. Schroeder makes no attempt to "prove" the existence of God. Yet his interpretations of the work of his fellow scientists touch on life's ultimate mysteries. His wise observations on the organization of organic life, on the power of humans to make sense of their sensory inputs, and on the complexities of the code of DNA all show that life has a direction and purpose that cannot be explained in purely physical terms. Throughout, he addresses three great themes: the question of first causes (i.e., where do the laws of nature come from?); the inseparability of mind and matter; and the philosophical problem of design. To believe that a designer must have been involved, he reminds us, we need not insist on perfection or on our view of perfection in the design. The Hidden Face of God will open a world of science to religious believers, and it will cause skeptics to rethink some of their deepest beliefs.
The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Castle Lecture Series)
by Kathryn SikkinkWhy we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize human responsibilities When we debate questions in international law, politics, and justice, we often use the language of rights—and far less often the language of responsibilities. Human rights scholars and activists talk about state responsibility for rights, but they do not articulate clear norms about other actors&’ obligations. In this book, Kathryn Sikkink argues that we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize and practice the corresponding human responsibilities. Focusing on five areas—climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault—where on-the-ground (primarily university campus) initiatives have persuaded people to embrace a close relationship between rights and responsibilities, Sikkink argues for the importance of responsibilities to any comprehensive understanding of political ethics and human rights.
The Hidden God
by Ryan WhiteThe Hidden God revisits the origins of American pragmatism and finds a nascent "posthumanist" critique shaping early modern thought. By reaching as far back as the Calvinist arguments of the American Puritans and their struggle to know a "hidden God," this book extends the parameters of intellectual history to bring American pragmatism closer to contemporary critical theory.The study reads the writings of key American philosophers, including Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Charles Sanders Peirce, against modern theoretical works by Niklas Luhmann, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Sharon Cameron, Cary Wolfe, and Gregory Bateson. This juxtaposition isolates the distinctly posthumanist form of pragmatism that began to arise in these early texts, challenging the accepted genealogy of pragmatic discourse and common definitions of posthumanist critique. Its rigorously theoretical perspective has wide implications for humanities research, enriching investigations into literature, history, politics, and art.