Project description
The impact of exiled philosophers on American thinking
In the 1930s, hundreds of mostly Jewish academics fled to the United States, escaping the political situation in Europe. Among them were a few dozen philosophers representing different schools of thought. Some of these refugee thinkers, in particular the logical empiricists, would have a great impact on American philosophy. To date, historians have paid little attention to the American intellectual climate in which this movement became successful. The ERC-funded EXILED-EMPIRICISTS project investigates why it was the logical empiricists, and not other exiled schools of thought (phenomenology or critical theory), that were embraced by American scholars. Specifically, it will digitally analyse thousands of journal publications and examine the archives of US philosophers and institutions.
Objective
In the 1930s, hundreds of European academics fled to the United States, escaping the quickly deteriorating political situation on the continent. Among them were a few dozen philosophers from a variety of different schools: logical empiricists, phenomenologists, and critical theorists. Especially the first group would have a tremendous impact on American philosophy. Although the local intellectual climate had been dictated by distinctively American traditions such as pragmatism, U.S. philosophers soon began to advance views that were heavily indebted to the empiricists, thereby transforming the American philosophical landscape.
Historians have reconstructed the fate of the exiled empiricists. Still, little attention has been paid to the American context in which their movement came to full bloom. This is remarkable since any account of the empiricists' success requires an explanation of why the Americans were so susceptible to their views. What explains the surprisingly positive reception of logical empiricism? And why were the Americans more receptive to empiricism than to phenomenology or critical theory? This project shifts the perspective from the migrant philosophers to the local philosophical climate by 1) quantitatively analyzing thousands of American journal publications and 2) qualitatively examining the archives of dozens of key U.S. philosophers and institutions.
Today, it seems natural to carve up the philosophical landscape into an 'analytic' and a 'continental' tradition. Yet few philosophers realize that this deeply engrained distinction is relatively new; it first became popular in the United States in the years after the intellectual migration. In studying the unique American melting pot of philosophical schools (e.g. pragmatism, logical empiricism, phenomenology, critical theory), this project offers a broader, unifying perspective on 20th-century philosophy, thereby transcending the school-based barriers that have often shaped its historiography.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Host institution
5037 AB Tilburg
Netherlands