‘As they say that Helen of Argos had that universal beauty that every body felt related to her, so Plato seems to a reader in New England an American genius. His broad humanity transcends all sectional lines.’
– from ‘Plato; or, the Philosopher’; Representative Men (1850) by Ralph Waldo Emerson
‘Only Hegel is fit for America – is large enough and free enough.’
– from an unpublished lecture on German philosophy; Notebooks by Walt Whitman (1819-92)
What is the future of philosophy in the United States? This question weighs heavily on teachers and scholars as philosophy departments around the country – at schools rich and poor, large and small – blink out of existence. Some are eliminated as part of an institution-wide downsizing effort, as operating budgets and endowments contract; others are simply pillaged for resources to give to other programs that more readily display the one virtue recognised by administrators: ‘impact’.
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