Vanderbilt University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1973
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
  •  67
    Fichtean Circularity, Antifoundationalism, and Groundless System
    Idealistic Studies 25 (1): 107-124. 1995.
    For some time now I have been arguing that Fichte's theory can be read as circular, antifoundationalist, and systematic, and further arguing that it is the source of an epistemological revolution in philosophy. Fichte and most of his interpreters mainly see him as carrying forward the critical philosophy. But I see him as breaking with it in crucial ways in a profoundly innovative theory. The aim of this paper is to pull together aspects of this argument in a single place in order to describe Fi…Read more
  •  1
    Recent Philosophical Perspectives on Lukács in the West
    Studies in Soviet Thought 31 (1): 39-46. 1986.
  •  8
    Transcendental philosophy and everyday experience (edited book)
    Humanities Press. 1997.
    This collection focuses on the transcendental philosophy of Kant and Husserl and on the intersection of transcendental philosophy and everyday life and experience. It contains sections on philosophy and everyday experience, Kant and neo-Kantianism, applications of transcendental philosophy, and transcendental philosophy and the emotions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
  •  53
    On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy
    University of California Press. 1991.
    Given the significant attachment of the philosopher to the climate and intellectual mood of National Socialism, it would be inappropriate to criticize or exonerate his political decision in isolation from the very principles of Heideggerian philosophy itself. It is not Heidegger, who, in opting for Hitler, "misunderstood himself"; instead, those who cannot understand why he acted this way have failed to understand him. A Swiss professor regretted that Heidegger consented to compromise himself wi…Read more
  •  19
    Hegel, Peirce, and Knowledge
    Journal of Speculative Philosophy 13 (3). 1999.
  •  62
    Epistemology As Hermeneutics
    The Monist 73 (2): 115-133. 1990.
    Recent discussion has seen an increase in the interest in hermeneutics. The increased interest in hermeneutics goes back at least until the appearance of Being and Time in 1927, more than sixty years ago. Thisbookis characterized by the unresolved tension between two clearly incompatible theses: the Husserlian form of absolute truth, and a post-Husserlian view of truth arising from the hermeneutical circle. More recently, the interest in hermeneutics has been strengthened by the appearance of Tr…Read more
  •  6
    Remarks on Art, Truth, and Culture
    Journal of Philosophical Research 40 (Supplement): 235-238. 2015.
    Plato both created the Western aesthetic tradition and rejected the artistic claim to truth. I suggest that Plato’s rejection of the view that non-philosophical art is true gave rise to a debate later traversing the entire Western aesthetic tradition. I further suggest that the post-Platonic Western aesthetic tradition can be reconstructed as an effort by many hands to come to grips with and if possible overturn the Platonic judgment. I finally suggest that Hegel, in disagreeing with both Kant a…Read more
  •  32
    Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy (Wissenschaftslehre) nova methodo (1796/99) (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 47 (1): 145-146. 1993.
    Fichte is one of the small handful of philosophers on the highest level. But he is still relatively unknown, even in Germany, for a variety of reasons. These include the difficulty of his thought and its expression, which impedes even native Germans; the relatively greater attention paid to Kant and Hegel, and perhaps even to Schelling; and the lack of a critical edition of his writings. In English-language philosophical circles, beyond these handicaps, knowledge of Fichte is further impeded by …Read more
  • Père Marcel Régnier (1900-1998): Hommage au Père Marcel REGNIER (1900-1998)
    with F. Marty, X. Tilliette, H. -G. Gadamer, R. Lauth, W. Klubagk, L. Sichirollo, D. Henrich, P. Fruchon, and O. PÖGGELER
    Archives de Philosophie 62 (3): 429-442. 1999.
  •  126
    On Constructivist Epistemology
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2005.
    In this new volume, On Constructivist Epistemology, Rockmore traces the idea of constructivism and then proposes the outlines of an original constructivist approach to knowledge, building on the work of such thinkers as Hobbes, Vico, and Kant
  •  46
    Hegel, Idealism, and Analytic Philosophy
    Yale University Press. 2004.
    In this book—the first large-scale survey of the complex relationship between Hegel’s idealism and Anglo-American analytic philosophy—Tom Rockmore argues that analytic philosophy has consistently misread and misappropriated Hegel. According to Rockmore, the first generation of British analytic philosophers to engage Hegel possessed a limited understanding of his philosophy and of idealism. Succeeding generations continued to misinterpret him, and recent analytic thinkers have turned Hegel into a…Read more
  •  22
    Can War Transform Iraq into a Democracy?
    Theoria 51 (103): 15-27. 2004.
  •  5
    Reviews (review)
    with Friedrich Rapp
    Studies in Soviet Thought 25 (4): 323-329. 1983.
  •  41
    Knowledge as Historical
    The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 5 123-132. 2000.
    With few exceptions, philosophers typically have contended that knowledge worthy of the name is beyond time and place. This venerable idea was turned on its head in the emergence of a rival view of knowledge as historical in the wake of the French Revolution. A claim that knowledge is not ahistorical but historical resolves some of these difficulties while creating others. This paper will briefly consider several of these difficulties, including how to argue for this position, the differences be…Read more
  •  21
    New essays on Fichte's later Jena Wissenschaftslehre (edited book)
    Northwestern University Press. 2002.
    The philosophical thought of J. G. Fichte, particularly his later work, is at the very center of the paradigm shift under way in the field of German idealism. Crucial to this reassessment is Fichte's _Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo_ of 1796 to 1799, the manuscript at the heart of this essay colleciton and an articulation of the philosopher's _Wissenschaftslehre,_ or overall system of philosophy, which he discussed in lectures at the University of Jena. Coherent, comprehensive, and edited by two…Read more
  •  96
    Merleau-Ponty, Marx, and Marxism: The problem of history
    Studies in East European Thought 48 (1): 63-81. 1996.
    At the present time, Europe, particularly eastern Europe, is still immersed in a major political transformation, the most significant such change since the Second World War, arising out of the rejection of official Marxism. This unforeseen rejection requires meditation by all those concerned with the relation of philosophy to the historical context. Marxism, that follows Marx’s insistence on the link between a theory and the context in which it arises, cannot be indifferent to the rejection of M…Read more
  •  17
    Hegel et le constructivisme épistémologique
    Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 53 (1): 103-113. 2007.
    Il sera question ici d’examiner le constructivisme hégélien, relativement au problème épistémologique. Le constructivisme, comme concept mathématique, est basé sur la construction de l’objet et remonte à l’antiquité grecque. Le constructivisme philosophique, par contre, est un concept moderne qui applique cette stratégie mathématique au problème de la connaissance. La forme hégélienne, omniprésente dans ses écrits, ne semble jamais avoir reçu l’attention qu’elle mérite. Elle se laisse pourtant e…Read more
  •  43
    On classical and neo-analytic forms of pragmatism
    Metaphilosophy 36 (3): 259-271. 2005.
    Pragmatism as it originally arose in America has always been pluralist, always willing to find space for those who understood it in other ways. But in the emergence of neo-analytic pragmatism it is possible that the term has been stretched beyond its limits in a way that does more harm than good in veiling if not actually obscuring central tenets that are well worth preserving. The aim of this article is to describe some aspects of this phenomenon and to draw some tentative conclusions.
  • Book reviews (review)
    with James C. Morrison and Cyril Welch
    Man and World 12 (1): 89-112. 1979.
  •  49
    Reviews (review)
    Studies in East European Thought 20 (2): 275-277. 1979.
  • Irrationalism. Lukács and the Marxist View of Reason
    Science and Society 58 (1): 115-117. 1992.
  •  45
    Fichte in the New World
    The Owl of Minerva 23 (1): 126-128. 1991.
    It is a fact that Hegel’s immense presence, and above all his own self-serving reading of the history of philosophy as leading up to his own position, has tended to detract attention from other views. Hegel’s position consciously builds upon its predecessors. If philosophy culminates in Hegel’s thought, then other theories are mainly valuable in that they survive as lower moments of the Hegelian synthesis. Hegel insists that he takes up what is positive in prior views. Hence, the mere fact that …Read more
  • Response To Errol Harris's Review Of "Hegel's Circular Epistemology"
    Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain 15 55-56. 1987.