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A Monograph in MODERN CONCEPTS OF PHILOSOPHY Series Editor MARVIN FARBER State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, New York Titles appearing in this series do not necessarily reflect the thinking of the editor or publisher. The series has been developed to present all modern concepts of philosophy. The following titles have either been published in the series or are in production and will be published soon. 1. ON SPACE AND TIME: Kant, Strawson, Heidegger-by Walter Cerf 2. RADICAL CURRENTS IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY-edited by David DeGrood 3. THE MEASUREMENT OF VALUES: Behavioral Science and Philosophical Approaches-by Rollo Handy 4. SOCIALIST HUMANISM: The Outcome of Classical European Moralityby Donald Clark Hodges 5. THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF HUMAN PURPOSE: The New Relevance of Purpose to Existence-by William Horosz 6. LANGUAGE AND HUMAN NATURE: A French-American Philosophers' Dialogue-edited by Paul Kurtz 7. NATURALISTIC PHILOSOPHIES OF EXPERIENCE-by D. C. Mathur 8. THE CONCEPT OF INTENTIONALITY: A Critical Study-by Vitendra Nath Mohanty 9. AN EXAMINATION OF SET THEORY-by John L. Pollock 10. PLATO'S DIALECTIC-by Lynn Rose 11. POWER AND ITS MOULD: An Essay on State and Politics-by Nathan Rotenstreich 12. PRINCIPLES OF EMERGENT REALISM: Philosophical Essays by Roy Wood Sellars-edited by Preston Warren 13. RELIGION AND HUMAN PURPOSE-edited by William Horosz and Tad Clements 14. METAPHYSICAL AND GEOMETRICAL DOCTRINE OF BRUNO-by Xenia Atanassievitch, translated by George V. Tomashevich Naturalistic Philosophies OF Experience STUDIES IN JAMES, DEWEY AND FARBER AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF HUSSERL'S PHENOMENOLOGY By D. C. MATHUR Professor of Philosophy State University College of New York at Brockport WARREN H. GREEN, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. INC. Published by WARREN H. GREEN, INC. 10 South Brentwood Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63105 All rights reserved © 1971 by WARREN H. GREEN, INC. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-117613 Printed in the United States of America TO MY PARENTS PREFACE I N this work, the author, through intensive and critical studies in the philosophies of James, Dewey and Farber against the background of Hussed's 'pure phenomenology,' has brought out at one stroke the limitations of the ultra-rationalistic brand of transcendental phenomenology with its ambitious 'constitutive' program, and at the same time opened a new and hitherto unexplored direction toward a naturalistic phenomenology of experience and knowledge. He has discovered not only in the writings of James (who has recently been studied extensively from the phenomenological point of view) but those of Dewey also, strong tendencies and incipient gropings toward such a consummation. He has brought out the inherent tensions in the attempts of James and Dewey to 'penetrate' nature through a descriptive-phenomenological analysis of experience. The author recalls how James constantly had to defend himself against the SUbjectivistic interpretations of his theory of 'pure experience' by critics, and how Dewey admitted the 'circularity' involved in his procedure in reply to his opponents. Nevertheless, James remains in the author's view a powerful precursor, and Dewey an able continuator, of an American brand of naturalistic phenomenology of experience and knowledge. And yet, these laudable attempts were hampered by that strange fascination for making an absolute beginning in philosophizingwhich James and Dewey, despite their varied background and training, shared with Husserl. It is in the writings of Farber, who is heir to the tradition of both Husserlian phenomenology and American naturalism and realism, that the author finds a fully conscious and articulate development of naturalistic phenomenol