Best of: America's philosophy, with Cornel West

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean Illing talks with Cornel West about the American philosophical tradition known as pragmatism. They talk about what makes pragmatism so distinctly American, how pragmatists understand the connection between knowledge and action, and how the pragmatist mindset can invigorate our understanding of democratic life and communal action today. Cornel West also talks about the ways in which pragmatism has influenced his work and life, alongside the blues, Chekhov, and his Christian faith. This was an episode of The Philosophers, a series from Vox Conversations, originally released in May. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews writer, Vox Guest: Cornel West (@CornelWest), author; Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of philosophy & Christian practice, Union Theological Seminary References to works by American pragmatists: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882): "Self-Reliance" (1841) William James (1842–1910): Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907); The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902); "Is Life Worth Living?" (1895) Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914): "The Fixation of Belief" (1877) John Dewey (1859–1952): The Quest for Certainty (1929); "Emerson—The Philosopher of Democracy" (1903); The Public and Its Problems (1927) Richard Rorty (1931–2007): "Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism" (1979); "Solidarity or Objectivity?" (1989) Other references: Cornel West Teaches Philosophy (MasterClass) The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism by Cornel West (Univ. of Wisconsin Press; 1989) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) Plato, Republic (refs. in particular to Book 1 and Book 8) The Phantom Public by Walter Lippmann (1925) Leopardi: Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), tr. by Eamon Grennan (Princeton; 1997) "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus (1942; tr. 1955) Democracy & Tradition by Jeffrey Stout (Princeton; 2003) Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by: Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Patrick Boyd Senior Producer: Katelyn Bogucki Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.1	Hey, it's Sean Elling. As we approached the end of 2022, I wanted to
0:38.1	reshare one of my favorite episodes we did this year. It was a conversation for
0:42.2	series we did called The Philosophers about great thinkers and their
0:46.1	relevance today. We're definitely going to be producing more episodes like
0:50.3	this in 2023, so stay tuned and subscribe. But for now, here's our conversation
0:56.1	with the one and only Dr. Cornell West.
1:15.1	America doesn't have an especially deep tradition of philosophy. It's not that
1:20.8	we haven't produced any good philosophers. Of course we have. But in general,
1:26.2	America isn't seen as a beacon of philosophical thought. Why is that? Is it
1:34.0	because we have an anti-intellectual culture? Or maybe we're too devoted to
1:39.9	practical pursuits? Or perhaps we're just a product of modern thinkers who
1:45.6	desperately wanted to break away from the past and start something new. But if
1:50.7	there ever was a truly American philosophy, what would it look like? For this
1:57.4	episode of The Philosophers, we're going to explore this with one of our great
2:01.1	public philosophers, Cornell West.
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