From: Bill J. Harrell (bharrell@ntcnet.com)

****** ANNOUNCING A STEPHEN C. PEPPER LIST ******

This is to announce a list for the purpose of discussing the philosophy and work of Stephen C. Pepper. The Pepper list will also discuss the work of those who use Pepper's ideas in their research and writing. Pepper was an American philosopher (1891-1972) who worked and wrote primarily in the tradition of pragmatism. He contributed the piece on aesthetics in The Philosophy of John Dewey, the Library of Living Philosophers inaugural work, published in 1939. His best known book is probably World Hypotheses in which he develops the "root metaphor" method and outlines what he considers to be four basically adequate world hypotheses (world views or conceptual systems): formism, mechanism, contextualism, organicism. Pepper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each of the world hypotheses as well as the paradoxical and sometimes mystifying effects of efforts to synthesize them. In his later work he formulated what he considered to be a fifth world hypothesis, selectivism. Pepper's method involves the identification in common-sense of a metaphor which orders experience. It then attempts to show how the metaphor is refined into a self-conscious system of categories and principles of evidence which intend to capture reality. (In some cases Pepper's "metaphor" is closer to what Lakoff and Johnson call a "subcategorization.") The conceptual clarity won by the root metaphor method and the analysis of world hypotheses was applied by Pepper to a number of important questions which include: the nature of mind, the history of science, the hierarchical relationship between common sense through systematic empirical disciplines, on through to formal self-referential modes of thought such as formal logic and mathematics. Pepper offers a unique approach to problems of value central to ethics and aesthetics.

*************** PEPPER ON METAPHOR ******************

"Metaphor in philosophy may be distinguished from metaphor in poetry by being primarily an explanatory rather than aesthetic device. Its explanatory function is to aid in conceptual clarification, comprehension, or insight regarding a mode of philosophical thought, a problem area of philosophical subject matter, or even a total philosophical system.

Not only are the great traditional systems caught up in the action of metaphorical interpretations, but the cultural concepts and institutions dominating the beliefs and values of ordinary men are impregnated with them.

It is rather the use of one part of experience to illuminate another - to help us understand, comprehend, even to intuit, or enter into the other.... The paradox of a metaphor is that is seems to affirm an identity while also half denying it. 'All things are water,' Thales seems to say. In so saying he would be affirming an identity and yet acknowledging that it is not obvious, and that what is more obvious is the difference. He claims an insight beyond the conventional view of things."

(Quoted from "Metaphor in Philosophy" in Philip S. Wiener (ed.), Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 1973, reprinted in Paunch, nos. 53-54, pp. 54-63 (January, 1980).)

While not as well known internationally as the masters of pragmatism, Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, perhaps even George Herbert Mead, Pepper has still had widespread influence in many disciplines. For example, in 1982, Arthur Efron organized a conference at the University of Buffalo to consider Pepper's idea of how conceptual systems evolve in practice from a basic or root metaphor. A large number of scholars participated who were from a wide range of disciplines and with a multitude of theoretical and practical interests. (Proceedings are published in The Journal of Mind and Behavior, vol. 3, nos. 3 & 4, 1982.) We would expect and encourage an even greater range of disciplines, conceptual perspectives, and interests to participate in the Pepper list. We are convinced that Pepper's work continues to be rich, suggestive, and clarifying. Its ongoing critical consideration is important. Our hope is that this list can contribute to that enterprise: that people unfamiliar with Pepper will discover his work, that old hands will find fresh uses and insights as well as guide the rest of us, that persons presently using his ideas in their own work will share their experience with us.

As the "owner" of the list perhaps I should introduce myself and tell you how and why I am interested in the work of Stephen Pepper. I recently retired after teaching college for 35 years. My own interests in Pepper, as a sociologist, obviously involve questions about the nature of society and social order. I have used Pepper's world hypotheses and the root metaphor method as a critical framework from which to consider social theories. I have attempted to associate the various world hypotheses with different kinds of social structure based on a typology of social organization and bias developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas. I am particularly interested in associating the contradictory and paradoxical consequences of efforts to mix the logic of different world hypotheses with the contradictions and conflicts usually characteristic of concrete social structures.

We look forward to learning about your own interests and how these may relate to Pepper.

If you are interested in joining the Pepper list send an email message to:

Majordomo@majordomo.sunyit.edu

Write in the message section of the email post:

subscribe scpepper-l

Once you have succeeded in subscribing it would be useful if you sent a brief introduction including an account of your past, present, or prospective interest in the ideas of Stephen C. Pepper. Finally, please feel free to forward this announcement to any person you feel may be interested in the scpepper-l or to any list or web site which may attract persons with such an interest.

I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON scpepper-l !!!

If you should have trouble subscribing to the list get in touch with me at:

bharrell@ntcnet.com
or
harrell@sunyit.edu

Bill

Bill J. Harrell
Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
S.U.N.Y. Institute of Technology
Utica, NY 13504

Home: 1917 Holland Ave.
Utica, NY 13501
bharrell@ntcnet.com
harrell@sunyit.edu