The Philosophical Tensions of American Naturalism Foreshadowing American Pragmatism: London, Crane, and William Jame

The great art historian Max Dvorak, famously wrote "Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte", literally, "Art History is Spiritual History". This paper explores the Geistgeschichte of American naturalism as it reflected the cultural and intellectual battleground between the traditional ideologies of Christendom and the implications of materialism, particularly foreshadowing the philosophical pragmatism of William James. Two American naturalist novels particularly stand out in directly reflecting the cultural and intellectual trend towards American Pragmatism, Jack London's The Sea-Wolf and Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage . While all natural texts re-examine humanity's relationship to nature in light of post Darwinian science, the protagonists of these explicitly wrestle with these questions within the story, making them particularly important in their reflections of the American Geistgeschichte.;The Sea-Wolf explores the social and philosophical tension between self-preservation and altruism. Lofty idealism is forced to adapt to the brutality of a dog-eat-dog world, yet traditional mores are still ratified in a real world context as cooperation as well as competition determines the survival of the fittest, demonstrating that a materialistic universe does not leave an individual or society in a moral vacuum. The Red Badge of Courage explores the ideal of courage related to moral integrity in an individual and social context. The novel's protagonist goes from idealistic desires to be like a heroic medieval knight to a desperate animalistic attempt to survive the insanity of mechanized war with actions of both courage and cowardice. The protagonist's resolution about the social responsibility of courage is a pragmatic one for his own practical and psychological survival, while at the same time critiquing the traditional ideals of courage and heroism in the face of the horrors of war in an apathetic universe. Both novels tackle a particular traditional moral ideal in relation to nature, society, and self, trying to find a compromise between materialism and idealism that directly parallels the Pragmatism lectures of William James. More particularly, reflect how the cultural/intellectual trend of American Pragmatism sought to embrace both science and the traditional values and reconcile rationalism and empiricism, with Pragmatism as the middle road between materialism and metaphysics. William James and these novels suggest morality is ultimately grounded in pragmatic benefit for both the individual and the group, reflecting a religious nation which yet sought to identify itself as the beacon of both scientific and social progress. Building upon the work of scholars such as Donald Pizer, Charles Walcutt, June Howard, Paul Civello, and others, this paper demonstrates how the tensions, explorations and resolutions about idealism, materialism, social Darwinism and Pragmatism clearly reflect the questions and direction of the American Geistesgeschicte.