Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Unit

Classical Pragmatist Roots and Contemporary Fruits

The Boston area is the birthplace of American Pragmatism. Charles Peirce was born in Cambridge, and William James spent much of his career teaching at Harvard. Both were shaped by the insights of the proto-pragmatism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Furthermore, Alain Locke and W.E.B Du Bois were both students of James who went on to make important pragmatism-inflected contributions to American and African-American thought and specifically influenced the Harlem Renaissance. The classical Pragmatists developed robust theories of psychology (especially James’ theories of affect and emotion) and experience (especially Peirce’s insights into truth, goodness, and beauty through empirical inquiry). 

We invite papers that consider how the insights of the classical pragmatists can help us think through and address contemporary issues, including:

 

• Navigating our current information ecosystem and resisting misinformation 
• Considerations of epistemic responsibility
• Theories of affect and emotion, especially as it relates to knowledge, motivation and breaking down the thinking/feeling binary.
• Questions of normativity in thought and action
• Approaches to learning through experience and experimentation

• Feminist and Womanist thought, especially ethics and epistemology

   

Revisiting Personalism: In Boston and Beyond

Co-sponsorship with Nineteenth Century Theology Unit, Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Unit, and Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit

• In 2025, the Annual Meeting returns to Boston, approximately 150 years after Borden Parker Bowne (1847–1910) returned to the U.S. from his European studies at Paris, Halle, and Göttingen, where he was deeply influenced by Hermann Lotze. Bowne taught for many years in the School of Theology at Boston University, he founded the Graduate School and the Philosophy Department, and he became known as the “Father of Boston Personalism.”
• The Nineteenth Century Theology Unit, the Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Unit, and the Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit jointly invite papers on the subject of (Boston) Personalism and especially addressing topics that arise in light of the Annual Meeting’s theme of “Freedom.” Papers may consider nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophical and theological movements that influenced the development of Personalism (as it arose in affirmation of or in contradiction to them) as well as persons, positions, and movements that were directly or indirectly influenced by Personalism, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement or attempts at West European Integration after World War II. We also invite papers that delve into original personalist thought and its relevance in contemporary discussions of personalism, connecting past and present by considering how early personalist thought continues to be relevant in our world today.

Roundtable

Select Book Review of current scholarship; revisit discussion with West and Stout; or roundtable on contemporary thought and  Empiricism and Pragmatism