PHIL 475: Senior Seminar for
2005 Return to Senior Seminar Home Page
Bugbee’s Thematic Philosophy:
Grounding Thought in Experience
In this seminar, we are turning to the thought
of Henry Bugbee, along with two of his precursors, Gabriel Marcel and Henry
David Thoreau. In doing so, we are going
to engage in what could be termed “thematic” or “concrete” philosophy. In this approach to philosophical thinking,
one does not begin by enunciating principles, which then are conceptually
clarified in a rigorous logical scheme, but by carefully and reflectively
delving into our specific experiences, our lives as we live them. The themes
for thinking arise only as we undergo our experiences and are initiated by them
into the living of our lives. Like the existentialists of
Bugbee was deeply suspicious
of systematic thought, in which the drive to fill in and clarify the gaps in a
conceptual framework inevitably distorted and even perverted the truths lying
at the core of our experiential interchange with other beings and the world we
share with them. Bugbee was also deeply
suspicious of the claims of “positivism”—that only objectified experience, such
as we find in the empirical sciences, can lead to the truth. Truth is not observed but experienced for
Bugbee. And truth is not an edifice of
concepts but a continually deepening and renewed sense of how our very lives
are the communication of truth. As Marcel
puts it in his introduction to The Inward
Morning, for Bugbee, “explanation cannot allay wonder” but leads to an
“endless process,” in which “the human spirit is committed to the condition of
a wanderer to the extent that it is taken up with the task of explanation” (IM, 23).
But finally, not explanation
but immersion or absorption in life is the outcome of philosophical
thought. Indeed, it is not philosophical
thought in which the philosopher should be primarily engaged but in living a philosophical
life. In thinking or living out his
approach, Bugbee raises the possibility of unconditional affirmation, of a
commitment to the human situation that does not seek to undo its difficulties
or look beyond its particular mode of involvement in the world, but works fully
within it. In such affirmation, we find
humility and wonder, responsibility and witness as ever renewed and renewing
givens of our experience.
Texts:
Required:
The Inward Morning: A Philosophical Exploration in
Journal Form, Henry Bugbee
“Wilderness in
“
Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, Gabriel Marcel
“On Being and Having”: See
Senior Seminar Homepage for link.
A Week on the
Recommended:
Wilderness and the Heart: Henry Bugbee’s Philosophy of
Place, Presence, and Memory, Edward
Mooney
Grading
3 Seminar Presentations 30%
3 Weekly Journal Submissions 30%
Bugbee Response Paper 10%
Marcel Response Paper 10%
Final Response Paper (includes Thoreau) 20%
WEEK ONE: CLASS DISCUSSION/Reading from David James Duncan’s “Five Henry Stories.”
WEEK TWO: 1/31, 2/2 Inward Morning, pp. 33-54
Focus Questions: 1) What does Bugbee mean by “concrete philosophy.”
2) Discuss how one of the three stories he tells might be an example of concrete philosophy.
WEEK THREE: 2/7-9 Inward Morning, pp. 54-101
Focus Questions: 1) Discuss the distinction between “knowing in order to believe” and “believing in order to know.” What about the latter claim causes problems for philosophical thinking? How does Bugbee develop this latter claim? 2) How does Bugbee’s reading of Socrates differ from that of Plato? Why can’t wisdom be a “possession” for Bugbee? 3) Why is witnessing the preeminent mode of philosophical knowing for Bugbee? How does he distinguish it from “knowing about”?
WEEK FOUR: 2/14-16 Inward Morning, pp. 101-150
Focus Questions: 1) Bugbee states: “Let us not neglect to think of the ground being under our own feet; and let us no talk as if we placed the ground under our own feet. A ground which our feet do not discover is no ground” (p. 111). What does Bugbee mean by “ground” here? According to Bugbee, what gives thought, your thought, its ground? 2) Why is Bugbee critical of the Stoics? (Look them up in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy!). Do you agree? Why or why not? 3) What is the difference between “supposing a case” and “thinking a case that is”? How might each respectively lead, or fail to lead, to philosophic reflection?
WEEK FIVE: 2/21-23 Inward Morning, pp. 150-198
Focus Questions: 1) Discuss what Bugbee means by “unconditional concern.” How does it encompass both moral and aesthetic and even metaphysical considerations? 2) Using an experience as your guide, try to make sense of Bugbee’s notion of “leaving things be” (which is, by the way, derived from Meister Eckhart’s notion of “Gelassenheit”). 3) What do you think Bugbee means by the term “wilderness”? 4) Discuss simplicity as a mode of mystery for Bugbee.
WEEK SIX: 2/28-3/2 Inward Morning, pp. 198-232
Focus Questions: 1) Do you agree with how Bugbee characterizes the “religious attitude”? Why or why not? 2) What exactly is the meaning of “disposability”? How does the “yes” of “readiness and disposability” defeat either a merely objective or subjective characterization of it? 3) Why do you think Bugbee thinks true excellence transcends being praised?
FIRST FIVE WEEKS OF WEEKLY JOURNALS DUE
WEEK SEVEN: 3/7-9 “A Way of Reading the Book of Job” and
“Wilderness in
Focus Questions:
WILDERNESS ESSAY: 1) What is, according to Bugbee, “the dilemma concerning wilderness in our time”? How does he propose to resolve this dilemma? 2) What do you make of Bugbee’s claim that wilderness is a mode of listening? 3) What do you think Bugbee means by “the propertied life”? How does wilderness provide an alternative to such a life?
JOB ESSAY: 1) How is nature’s impersonality a good for Bugbee? Do you agree with his argument on this issue? 2) For Bugbee, what is the meaning of “divine justice”?
WEEK EIGHT: 3/14-16 “Outlines of a Phenomenology of Having”
Vocabulary:
a qui = a “who” a quid = a “what” hetero-centric = “other-centered”
auto-centric = “self-centered” Grentzbegriff = “limit concept”
Focus Questions: 1) What goes awry when we try to think of our body merely as our possession? 2) What is the difference between an ideologist and a thinker or artist? 3) Why is it so difficult to “characterize” reality? 4) How is evil a mystery rather than a problem?
SPRING BREAK
WEEK NINE: 3/28-30 , Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, chps 1 and 2
Focus Questions: 1) What can be expected of philosophy? 2) What are the responsibilities of the philosopher?
BUGBEE RESPONSE PAPER
DUE: Wilderness in
Bugbee
On page
76 of Inward Morning, Bugbee states: “Our true home is wilderness, even the
world of everyday.” Again, on page 127,
he speaks of wilderness as “the reality of faith,” where I “find my vocation.” Expand on the meaning of these claims by developing
your own account of what Bugbee means by wilderness. In doing so, you will need to look beyond
this passage to other places in his writings (including his essays on Job and
on Wilderness) where the term emerges.
You will also need to introduce auxiliary terms from Bugbee*such as
“things”, “faith,” “wonder”, “vocation,” “idolatry,” “unconditional concern,”
etc. in making your analysis. Finally,
given the import of Bugbee’s notion of where philosophy begins, you will need
to refer to an experiential moment in which the theme of wilderness emerged for
you beyond your readings.
So, your
task is threefold: a) Make sense, the
best you can, of Bugbee’s discussion of wilderness; b) In doing so, introduce
terms from Bugbee’s thought that will aid you in this analysis; c) Relate this
discussion to the sense of wilderness you gain not simply through an analysis
of Bugbee’s writings but also through your own encounter of wilderness as it
presents itself to you in your experience.
In this way, your analysis will reach beyond Bugbee’s account to your
own philosophical insights, derived from your own sense of how your experience
should matter in your thinking. In this
last effort, as you true Bugbee’s ideas by means of your own lived involvement
in a world that is wilderness, do not be afraid to coin your own terms or raise
questions your feel were left unaddressed by Bugbee.
The
paper should be around four pages long.
Typewritten!
WEEK TEN: 4/4-6 Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, “My Death”
Focus Questions: 1) How is death “das Ende” for Heidegger? Does Marcel agree with this characterization of death? Why or why not? 2) How is death a call, a vocation, for Marcel?
WEEK ELEVEN: 4/11-13 Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, “The Encounter with Evil” and “Life and the Sacred”
Focus Questions: 1) In what way does evil evade being a problem? 2) What way of facing evil is not misguided for Marcel? Why is it not misguided? 3) In what way, according to Marcel, does life itself ask for a response of piety?
SECOND FIVE WEEKS OF WEEKLY JOURNALS DUE/Friday April 15th
DISCUSSION OF 2nd RESPONSE PAPER: How might Marcel’s Development of the notion of Mystery, Life and the Sacred Supplement Bugbee’s Account of Wilderness?
Using Marcel’s comments on “Life and the Sacred” as a starting point, return to Bugbee’s discussion of our relationship with life, which is to say, living things, particularly as it is elaborated in the ending passages of the two essays (“Wilderness” and “Job”) we have discussed in class. How might Marcel’s comments on the connection of life and the sacred open up Bugbee’s discussion of wilderness? How might Bugbee’s discussion of wilderness add a focus and clarity to Marcel’s notion of life?
This response paper is to be added to and integrated with your first response paper on Bugbee and Wilderness. In writing your second response paper (approx. 2+ additional pages to your first response paper), you will need to go through your first paper and rewrite it (both with a view to my comments and to your own growing insight into what Bugbee means by wilderness).
WEEK TWELVE: 4/18-20:Thoreau, Ktaadn (pp. 620-655); also, David Rothenberg, “Melt the Snowflake at Once! Toward a History of Wonder” (Handout)
Focus Questions: 1) What is meant by Thoreau’s mantra: “Contact! Contact!” 2) In what way might Bugbee understand Throeau’s experience on Kattadn as an initiation into wilderness? 3) Bring one question to class for David Rothenberg on Wednesday.
4/20 David Rothenberg Visits our Class; Discussion of
his essay
4/20
WEEK THIRTEEN: 4/25 Thoreau Walden, pp. 387-401, 411-433
Focus Questions
4/27
3:30 pm, Cookie Colloquium with Bill McKibben/ Nanticoke Rooms A/B GC
4/27
4/27 Marcel/Bugbee Response Paper Due
WEEK FOURTEEN: 5/2-4 Continue with readings from week thirteen; also, Daniel Conway,“Answering the Call of the Wild: Walking with Bugbee and Thoreau” (Handout).
Focus Questions:
WEEK FIFTEEN: 5/9-11 Thoreau, pp. 490-511, 577-587.
Focus Questions:
FINALS WEEK:
Third Summative Response Paper Due
Final Five Weeks of Weekly Journals Due