The context of
American philosophy has been one where, by and large, until recently,
philosophical thinking and
philosophical thinkers were put to work in the service of causes and for the achievement of objectives not determined by or intrinsic to
philosophy itself. Thus, in the
Colonial period, philosophical thinking was dominated by the interests of
religion and religious leaders, such as the attempt on the part of
Puritan divines to establish a theocracy. Later, philosophical thinking was put to work in the service of first, revolution, and then making a
constitution and a
government and a
nation.
There was the
academic philosophy of the schools and colleges, and also
Transcendentalism, which was a rebellion against the prior. In the
Transcendentalist period there was a turning inward, to the improvement of the
soul and the
spirit. But philosophy was still conceived of as having an essentially practical character and as being the most important thing in the world, since it related to the care of one's
soul, a task promoted by the
Transcendentalists.
Now the reason philosophy of
culture is so important in the
American philosophical tradition is that there was, in most of the significant Americn thinkers, a conviction that philosophy can and must relate to life and the interests of life, as theses are defined outside of philosophical concerns, and for the most of them their philosophies were responses to or reflections on the problems of life This in American philosophy, philosophy of culture and philosophy of education assumed a prominent role, because American thinkers thought that philosophy should have such relations.
There is also a rival of the ancient idea that philosophy is something to live by, and that it is not in accordance with the dignity of human beings not to have a philosophy to live by. So the main stream of the American philosophical tradition has been concerned with the
philosophy of life and of society, and technical matters were regarded as of secondary importance. Although
Charles S. Peirce, a prominent thinker in his time, is a pronounced exception, even for
Peirce the end was the development of concrete reasonableness, and this also was a practical goal. It is especially because American philosophy had this character and developed in this context that we consider it in relation to
American culture.