Sidney Hook: Public Intellecutal

NOTE: All readings (except for Thelma Levine's brief intro to the Cohen Centenary) can be found in Talisse and Tempio, eds., Sidney Hook on Pragmatism, Democracy, and Freedom: The Essential Essays (Prometheus, 2002); numbers after titles refer to essay numbers in that book.

Session I.a. Philosophical Context: Hook's Life and Relationships to Morris Raphael Cohen, John Dewey and Bertrand Russell.

Readings:

1. Experimental Naturalism (1)
2. T. Z. Levine, "The Morris Raphael Cohen Centenary-Introduction," Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 17 (1981): 94-97; three pages of text to be made available in Eugene

Session I.b. Intellectual Commitments

Readings:

1. Naturalism and First Principles (2)
2. Communism without Dogmas (5)
3. A Critique of Conservatism (19)
4. Conflicts in Ways of Belief (11)
5. Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life (3)

Session II.a Democratic Theory and Practice

Readings:

1. The Democratic Way of Life (12)
2. The Ethics of Controversy (13)
3. Democracy and Social Protest (15)
4. Principles and Problems of Academic Freedom (21)
5. Education and Creative Intelligence (18)

Session II.b. The Role of the Public Intellectual

Reading:

The Intellectual in America (25)