Herbert Schneider on the History of American Philosophy

Herbert Schneider on the History of American Philosophy JOHN E. SMITH HERBERTSCHNEIDERWASA TEACHERfrom whom I learned a great deal, both formally and as a friend. He was the one who first awakened my interest in the development of philosophy in America, and I am forever in his debt for the suggestion that I work on the thought of Josiah Royce, especially his later philosophy of community and interpretation, and his application of these ideas in The Problem of Christianity. In view of the Royce industry that has developed in the past thirty-five years, his suggestion may not now seem momentous, but at that time the situation was very different from what prevails today. By the middle forties most of Royce's works were out of print, his papers in the Houghton Library at Harvard were in so chaotic a state that they could not be used by anyone until many years later, and the Harvard Department of Philosophy had no interest either in his thought or in any studies having to do with it. Whatever I have been able to do in the intervening years to remedy this situation has come as the result of Schneider's initial prompting. In addition, I served as a Teaching Assistant for him when I was studying at the Union Theological Seminary and I recall, above all, that I had the privilege of working with him in an undergraduate seminar on Augustine's Confessions. It was a wonderful introduction to teaching. In considering what would make the most appropriate contribution in honor of Herbert Schneider, I naturally turned to his A History ofAmerican Philosophy, a work of no mean proportions. Recognizing, however, that no full scale consideration of that book would be possible, I have hit upon the idea of considering in brief compass his treatment of three thinkers-Edwards , Emerson and James---a selection which itself has very good grounds, grounds furnished initially by Royce. In the year following the death of William James, Royce wrote a memorial essay which was published as the title piece in his book, WilliamJames and OtherEssays. In describing the [169] 17o JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY significance of James' thought on the American scene, Royce established him as the third "representative American thinker" preceded by Jonathan Edwards and Ralph Waldo Emerson. By "representative," I should explain, Royce meant a thinker whose life and thought stood for some characteristic feature, belief or tendency, of American social and cultural life, and who gave his own unique expression, interpretation and development of that trait. Let us now consider Herbert Schneider's treatment of these three major figures. Anyone who is at all acquainted with the writings of Edwards is aware of a pitfall to be avoided which is the temptation to base an understanding of his position on that most widely publicized sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It was this vivid portrayal of God holding, by no more than a spider's thread, a sinner over the fiery pit of Hell that earned for Edwards the image of the "fire and brimstone" theologian and for many this distortion stood in their way of understanding and appreciating his philosophical and theological genius--the ablest thinker in America up to the time of Peirce. The truth of the matter is that this sermon is totally atypical, for among the sixteen hundred sermons and sermon outlines in the Edwards manuscript collection no more than eight are of this sort. I know of no other major philosopher or theologian with extensive writings to his credit--the Yale Edition of his Works could easily reach thirty volumes--who has been so often identified through one small and unrepresentative work. But once the damage has been done, it seems virtually impossible to undo it. Schneider, I am happy to say, did not make this mistake and, in fact, he does not mention the sermon at all but concentrates instead on one of Edwards' most original contributions, namely, his attempt to synthesize the strong ecclesiastical element in Calvinism with individual, experiential piety of the sort manifested in the Great Awakening. Schneider is quite correct in seeing Edwards as the intellectual leader...