"Critically analyzes and revitalizes agrarian philosophy by tracing
its evolution."
Today, most historians, philosophers, political theorists, and
scholars of rural America take a dim view of the agrarian ideal
that farmers and farming occupy a special moral and political
status in society. Agrarian rhetoric is generally seen as special
pleading on the part of farmers seeking protection from labor
reform and environmental regulation while continuing to receive
direct payments and subsidies from the public till.
Agrarianism should not be viewed as a set of immutable claims about
farming and political order, but as a tradition of moral and
political philosophy that has evolved and deepened over the
centuries. Agrarian naturalism--the belief that culture and conduct
are conditioned by nature because they are of a piece with
nature--becomes pragmatic naturalism, giving way to a new set of
puzzles about how we are to understand the rural landscape and our
responsibilities for its use. The agrarian idea that personality
and sociability are integrated with the material transformation of
the landscape can serve as the basis for a new, pragmatically
grounded ethic of natural resources and rural development.
The essays in this volume critically analyze and revitalize
agrarian philosophy by tracing its evolution in the classical
American philosophy of key figures such as Franklin, Jefferson,
Emerson, Thoreau, Dewey, and Royce. Three chapters address the
belief that farming peoples develop moral virtue and a taste for
democracy as it evolved in the American context, and four examine
how a reconstitution of agrarian themes might invigorate our
nation's thinking on environment, food, and rural development
policy.
"The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism" will be of broad interest to
scholars of American philosophy, rural history, history of ideas,
geography, and agricultural or natural resource policy.
General
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