The Fortunes of Judgement: Philosophy from Foundations to Field

This chapter considers two radically different contexts in which to exercise of philosophical judgement and justification: on the one hand, the provision of foundations for thought and action, and on the other hand, reflection on thought and action in the field. The former starts from first principles, the latter is in medias res. Both major schools of contemporary philosophy—analytic and continental—have been ‘foundationalist’ in requiring a ‘clearing’ for thought prior to drawing philosophical conclusions. The argument here is pursued from the two schools’ common legacy in German Idealism, through the increasing separation of ‘hermeneutical’ and ‘naturalistic’ methods for understanding human beings over the past 150 years, which has obscured the self-transcending capacity of humans that drives us to seek foundations. The prima facie argument for field philosophy is that from ancient times to the present day, most academically trained philosophers have not worked in the academy. The German-speaking world, the crucible in which the modern university was forged, turns out to be pivotally ambivalent in this development, resulting in some of the most profound encounters with ‘foundations’ and ‘field’. The chapter discusses the potential political trickiness of moving from the foundations to the field in the American case, focusing on the fate of John Dewey.