Abstract

To answer such a question cannot be simple. No single philosophical strain has ever captured America for long. The domination of Hegel and Kant in Germany, of Empiricism or Wittgenstein in England, have no counterpart in America. Existentialism swept France after World War II, and Russia operated for years with a monolithic Marxism. It is true that American philosophers follow fashions and that certain schools of thought dominate for a time. But the basic pluralism present in America makes it almost impossible for one theory to gain total control. Forms of Hegelianism did dominate for a time, until American Pragmatism developed as a revolt against them. Yet as American as Pragmatism was in its origins, it never captured the entire philosophical scene either.