In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
Uses the concept of "worldmaking" to provide an introduction to American Indian philosophy. Ever since first contact with Europeans, American Indian stories about how the world is have been regarded as interesting objects of study, but also as childish and savage, philosophically curious and ethically monstrous. Using the writings of early ethnographers and cultural anthropologists, early narratives told or written by Indians, and scholarly work by contemporary Native writers and philosophers, Shawnee philosopher Thomas Norton-Smith develops a rational reconstruction of American Indian philosophy as a dance of person and place. He views Native philosophy through the lens of a culturally sophisticated constructivism grounded in the work of contemporary American analytic philosopher Nelson Goodman, in which stories (or “world versions”) satisfying certain criteria construct actual worlds—words make worlds. Ultimately, Norton-Smith argues that the Native stories construct real worlds as robustly as their Western counterparts, and, in so doing, he helps to bridge the chasm between Western and American Indian philosophical traditions.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Half Title Page, Title Page, Copyright, Epigraph
  2. pp. i-vi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Illustrations
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Foreword
  2. pp. xi-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xv-xvi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Common Themes in American Indian Philosophy
  2. pp. 1-16
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Nelson Goodman’s Constructivism
  2. pp. 17-38
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. True Versions and Cultural Bias
  2. pp. 39-54
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Relatedness, Native Knowledge, and Ultimate Acceptability
  2. pp. 55-76
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. An Expansive Conception of Persons
  2. pp. 77-94
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. The Semantic Potency of Performance
  2. pp. 95-118
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. Circularity as a World-Ordering Principle
  2. pp. 119-134
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. The Dance of Person and Place
  2. pp. 135-140
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 141-153
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 153-158
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 159-164
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.