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Book
Review |
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Drama of Possibility: Experience as Philosophy of Culture. By John
J. McDermott. Edited by Douglas R. Anderson. New York: Fordham University
Press, 2007. Pp. 416. Cloth, $85.00. Paper, $30 |
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I recently had the
pleasure of reviewing Experience as Philosophy: On the Work of John J.
McDermott. This is a collection of essays about McDermott's writing and
teaching. I have now been asked to review The
Drama of Possibility: Experience as Philosophy of Culture. This is a
collection of essays by McDermott. Reading these two books in the same year
has been an interesting and instructive experience. That much McDermott in a
relatively brief period of time is pretty intense. This experience was made
even more intense by the fact that in that same period of time I suffered the
death of several close friends—human and nonhuman—and several
friends and family members encountered serious illness. This has colored my
reading of The Drama of Possibility since death and illness are major
themes in McDermott's writings. My reading has also been informed by the fact
that for the last year and a half I have been in charge of overseeing the
process of reviewing and revising the general education requirements at my
university. For this reason McDermott's work on education and pedagogy took on
a particular importance this time around. As I said in the review of Experience as Philosophy, I find these
two themes to be intricately connected in the work of McDermott. Reading, and
in some cases re-reading, the essays presented in The Drama of Possibility just affirmed this judgment.
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In the "Afterward"
to Experience as Philosophy McDermott
notes that humans are not the center of existence, nor do we have any special
permanence or transcendence. He says it is because of this that we are called on to live active, meaningful lives. One very
important way to do this is to teach. "To teach is to help others move through
the vestibule and into the feast. The generational continuum of teacher and
student is an ennobling lifeline and perhaps, at times a lifeboat on a
fractured, contentious planet earth" (271). The essays in The Drama of Possibility bear this out. The editor of the volume,
Douglas R. Anderson, says much the same thing.
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As one who lives
without belief in the supernatural, Professor McDermott also writes about our
actual, finite victories and losses, and about the possibilities that these
victories and losses suggests for our contingent futures. The moral, the
aesthetic, the religious, the political all take place for McDermott as a drama
of possibility, and he repeatedly calls our attention to the dynamic interplay
of loss and hope this drama presents. Finally, Professor McDermott's awareness
of our precarious setting leads him to a Dewey-like commitment to pedagogy.
Only through meaningful transactions across generations and cultures will we
remain alive as a people and not resort to social stagnation or fall into
cultural chaos. In the end, for McDermott, it all comes down to our
willingness to learn and to teach—these are our most elemental
existential projects (4).
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The Drama of Possibility is an important
collection. It includes work published as early as 1965 and 1968 and as
recently as 2004. There are also several pieces published here for the first
time. This book represents over forty years of work, spanning five decades.
While it might be impolite to say, this collection maps exactly onto my own
lifespan. I was born in 1965. (This just adds another interesting personal
element to my relationship to this work, not to mention that I'm Irish!) A lot
has happened in these forty plus years and a lot happens in these pages. |
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The book is organized into five parts, each
containing essays from two or more different decades. Each part begins with a
poem by McDermott. While each essay can be productively read, taught, or
studied on its own, there is much to be gained by examining the book by its
sections. There is also something important to be gained from going beyond the
sections and examining the work as a whole. I will briefly do both here. The
necessary brevity does not do justice to what is here. |
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Part 1: An
American Angle of Vision contains six essays which very directly address
important aspects of the work of classical American philosophers—Emerson,
Royce, James, Santayana, Dewey, and others. They also address American
experience. This section moves from a certain loss of hope in "Threadbare
Crape" to the hopeful pressure of possibility in "Possibility or Else!" In
"Threadbare Crape" McDermott notes that the "increasing pressure of
estrangement, and ontological, rather than functional, frustration, are of
central moment. The issue in question, however, cuts deeper and may presage
our having lost the capacity to rework and reconstitute the viability of a
pluralistic and mosaic communal fabric which, in truth, is simply
quintessential if we are to survive as a nation" (25). This section then
begins to marshal resources for precisely this task of survival. In "An
American Angle of Vision" we find the resources of a pluralistic, experiential,
and experimental approach to amelioration. The essays specifically on Emerson
and on Royce provide insights into our ability as individuals and as a
community. Imagination helps us deal with risk and instability; it helps us
construct possibility. Community helps us stay open to various and mediated
interpretations. This mediation is aimed at amelioration. "Possibility or
Else!"—an essay published here for the first time—focuses on
William James and the idea that "we are not ontologically—that is,
utterly—disconnected" (133). We are creative and able; we are always in
process. So we (as individuals and communities) had better get busy in the
world. The next section of the book tries to explain the activity of the self
in the world.
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Part 2:
Environing, not surprisingly, deals with ways in which we find ourselves in
the world and how we experience it. These four essays continue the theme of
the reality of an unstable world. McDermott calls for a focus on relationships
and pluralism. Further in "A Relational World" we find that if "reality is
evolutionary, developmental, and processive rather than static or complete in
any way, then it is imperative to realize that positions taken by human
diagnosis and human intervention are significantly, although partially,
constitutive of the future course of events" (151). Now we have consequences
and responsibility—a call to thoughtful action. "If we have the 'will be
believe' in both our capacity to effect human healing of unnecessary suffering
and in our responsibility to do so, then we shall, in time create a human
community worthy of the rich human tradition of hope, aspiration, and wisdom"
(155). This is done in the face or our impermanence and so day by day.
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| Truly, then,
meliorism is a salutary human approach, despite it lacking the drama of either
pessimism or optimism. It takes no captives, makes no excessive claims, nor
bows out in frustration at the opposition. Dewey evokes the deepest sentiments
of human life, too often unsung and too often derided: that the nectar is in
the journey, that ultimate goals may be illusory, nay, most likely are but a
gossamer wing. Day by day, however, human life triumphs in its ineluctable
capacity to hang in and make things better: not perfect, simply better
(157-58). |
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| To
do this in the present day McDermott argues that we need to rethink space and
time. Most specifically things cannot only be improved by relocating, we also
need to see staying in place and dealing with limiting space as important
opportunities of self-understanding and amelioration. Knowing who and where we
are is important as we face up to our own transiency—the topic of the
next section. |
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| Part 3: Turning takes on disease, death, suffering, and starvation. These five essays push us
to see our inconsequence. "We do not fit into the world as a Lego piece or a
Lincoln Log. In fact, I believe that we have no special place in the organic
constituency of nature. Our consciousness, so different, so extraordinary, so
bizarre, especially in its dream state, is a marvelous and pockmarked
perturbation of the conic history of DNA" (256). Our being makes us who we
are, provides meaning, and maybe makes the world a better place. But there are
no guarantees other than our transiency. For McDermott the question and answer
is then "can we experience ourselves as terminal and yet live creative,
probing, building lives which, nonetheless, ask for no guarantees and for no
ultimate significance to be attributed to our endeavor? I for one, believe
that we can live this way; nay, I believe that it is only in this way that we live a distinctively human life" (285).
Death isn't the problem, isolation from experience and lack of growth are what
is worrisome. Without connections to our experiences growth is not possible.
That kind of living stagnation is what we should seek to avoid. "Our
impending death is not the major obstacle to our becoming truly human. The
obstacle is found in our running for cover on behalf of our escape from death"
(290). One of the most important ways to avoid this kind of stagnation is
found in the pedagogical relationship of teacher and student—specifically
the student and teacher of philosophy. "Pedagogy becomes, then, the twin
effort to integrate the directions of experience with the total needs of the
person and to cultivate the ability of an individual to generate new
potentialities in his experiencing and to make new relationships so as to
foster patterns of growth" (297). This is the human endeavor. Sections 4 and
5 deal with the importance of philosophy for a life of growth and purpose and
with the necessity of teaching and learning for making such growth possible for
us all—individually and collectively. |
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| Part 4:
Bequeathing takes on what philosophy has to offer the world today, and to
each of our lives. These five essays show us philosophy as thinking that is
willing to confront all ideas and the press of experience; philosophy enriches,
deepens, widens, thickens, leads to growth. McDermott contends that the
"message of philosophy" is "that there are possibilities 'not yet in our
present sight'" (343). It helps us ask questions and avoid living second-hand
lives. Well done, it helps us shake off our "ontological lethargy" (375),
helping us to see life as an activity. "The richness of the everyday, had we
the will to savor our possibilities, would far exceed our fantasies. Indeed,
our penchant for the fantastic is but an indictment of how casual and
unreflective has become our daily posture in a world which screeches at us,
though we hear not" (378). We need to listen and work to build "a liberating
human future" (380). |
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| Part 5:
Teaching addresses the importance of teaching, provides insights into
pedagogy, and highlights some of the problems teachers face today. The focus
of these five essays is on teaching us to be human; teaching us to live
actively and creatively in the face of uncertainty and death. To do this we
need a face-to-face pedagogy that engages the students' experience in the process.
Ambiguity and imagination need a place in the curriculum. Helping people
understand and explore their experience is more important than information
transfer. And this is the point of his work as a whole. McDermott may say it
best in his "Prescription." Going back to 1976 he reiterates a message that
permeates his work. "(D)o not await salvation while the parade passes by.
Surprise and mystery lurk in our experiencing the obvious, the ordinary.
Salvation may be illusory, but salving experiences can occur day by day" (12).This is a powerful
and important message for all of us to confront and wrestle with, whether in
our own personal lives or in our lives as teachers and scholars. And wrestle
you will. There are contradictions in these pages to be teased out,
assumptions to be questioned, and conclusions to be challenged. It a book that
calls out an active response from the reader and poses challenges to one's
life. |
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| One drawback to
the book is that the bibliography is published in Experience as Philosophy and not repeated here. This is a regrettable choice. So, you need to have
both books on your shelf and there is every reason to do so. Whether you are
teaching the works of McDermott himself, or anything about American philosophy,
existentialism, teaching, death, or life, you will find essays that would work
well in your class. If your own writing connects to these themes these will be
important volumes to consult. I highly recommend reading The Drama of Possibility. Whether you read it from start to
finish, or dip into particular sections and essays, it will provide you with a
taste of philosophical writing that connects to our lives in important ways.
My copy of the book is already crumpled and worn. It is a book that wears
well. |
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Erin McKenna
Department of Philosophy
Pacific Lutheran University
mckenna@plu.edu |
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