Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience

Edited by Kelly A. Parker and Heather E. Keith - Contributions by Tatiana Abatemarco; Daniel J. Brunson; Paul Benjamin Cherlin; Raymond J. Davidson Jr.; John Hausdoerffer; Jessica Hejny; Kenneth D. Keith; Danielle Lake; Zachary Piso; Jared L. Talley; Paul B. Thompson; William M. Throop; Judy D. Whipps and Joanna Wozniak-Brown

The essays in Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience offer a survey of the ways that “resilience” is becoming a key concept for understanding our world, as well as providing deeper insight about its specific actual and proposed applications. As a concept with multiple theoretical and practical meanings, “resilience” promises considerable explanatory power. At the same time, current uses of the concept can be diverse and at times inconsistent. The American philosophical tradition provides tools uniquely suited for clarifying, extending, and applying emerging concepts in more effective and suggestive ways. This collection explores the usefulness of theoretical work in American philosophy and pragmatism to practices in ecology, community, rurality, and psychology.

Lexington Books

Pages: 272 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-8105-9 • Hardback • December 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-8106-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: American Philosophy Series

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Pragmatism, Social Science / Sociology / General, Nature / General

Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The essays in Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience offer a survey of the ways that “resilience” is becoming a key concept for understanding our world, as well as providing deeper insight about its specific actual and proposed applications. As a concept with multiple theoretical and practical meanings, “resilience” promises considerable explanatory power. At the same time, current uses of the concept can be diverse and at times inconsistent. The American philosophical tradition provides tools uniquely suited for clarifying, extending, and applying emerging concepts in more effective and suggestive ways. This collection explores the usefulness of theoretical work in American philosophy and pragmatism to practices in ecology, community, rurality, and psychology.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 272 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-8105-9 • Hardback • December 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-8106-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Series: American Philosophy Series

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Pragmatism, Social Science / Sociology / General, Nature / General

Author

Kelly A. Parker is professor of philosophy, environmental studies, and integrative studies at Grand Valley State University.

Heather Keith is executive director of faculty development and professor of philosophy at Radford University.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction: Resilience as a Philosophical Concept

Kelly A. Parker

Part I. Pragmatist Conceptions of Resilience

1. Resilience as Wisdom: A Metaphysical Groundwork

Paul Benjamin Cherlin

2. Integrating Facts and Values in Explanations of Social-Ecological Resilience

Zachary Piso

3. Catastrophe and the Beloved Community: Resources for Resilience in Josiah Royce and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kelly A. Parker and Daniel J. Brunson

4. Frugality and Resilience: A Pragmatist Meditation

William M. Throop

5. Resilience Thinking and the Moral Imagination

Raymond J. Davidson Jr.

6. ‘What Anything Is for’: Resilience-as-Pragmatism in Aldo Leopold’s ‘Living Democracy’ and Vandana Shiva’s ‘Earth Democracy’

John Hausdoerffer

Part II. Developing Capacities for Resilience

7. Toward a Resilient Localism

Jessica Hejny

8. Humanities as a Source of Resilience in Jane Addams’s Community Activism

Judy D. Whipps

9. Pedagogies for Resilience: Intergroup Dialogue, Design Thinking, and the Integral Approach

Danielle Lake

10. Habits of Resilience: Positive Psychology and the Philosophy of William James

Heather E. Keith and Kenneth D. Keith

Part III. Practical Applications and Case Studies

11. Resilience as a Systems Concept, with an Application to the American West

Paul B. Thompson and Jared L. Talley

12. Justice and Agrarianism in Resilient Food Systems

Tatiana Abatemarco

13. Crafting Rural Resilience

Joanna Wozniak-Brown

Reviews

Parker and Keith have brought together an outstanding collection of scholars, working in the American philosophical tradition to unearth the depths of the idea of resilience, both as a general concept and with a specific focus on the environment. I’m convinced by at least one of the common themes throughout: resilience is an inherently pragmatic idea, and in turn, American Pragmatism contains a repository of tools to help us better understand it. These essays contain important guidance for how resilience can help us in our emerging world of persistent, and--sometimes-- overwhelming change and flux.
— Andrew Light, George Mason University

As species disappear, forests burn, and the climate changes, the quest for resilience has morphed from desirable pursuit to existential struggle. This winning collection is not only a plea to think more deeply about the foundations of our policy goals and community practices; it fittingly also demonstrates the hardiness of the American pragmatist tradition in an era increasingly defined by novel environmental and social challenges. And it shows that, unlike with our forests, farms, and waters, we’re still a long way from exhausting our philosophical resources.--Ben Minteer, Arizona State University
— Ben Minteer

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