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b'When you think of philosophy, you probably think of ancient Greece or 18th century France. You probably don\'t think of America. But this country also birthed its own set of philosophical luminaries, and my guest today had a unique encounter with them.\\n\\nWhen modern day professor of philosophy John Kaag was a graduate\\xa0student at Harvard, he was dispirited and struggling personally and professionally. But thanks to a chance encounter with an elderly New Englander, he discovered an abandoned\\xa0library in New Hampshire full of rare first edition books of the great works of Western philosophy, many of which were owned by quintessentially American thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James.\\xa0\\n\\nKaag began cataloging the books, and in the process, uncovered the intellectual history of American philosophy and its responses to big existential questions like, "Is life worth living?"\\n\\nToday on the show I talk to John about his experience with this abandoned library in the woods of New Hampshire, and with the authors of the books which were contained therein. We start off talking about how American philosophy is often overlooked, and its big ideas, which include transcendentalism and pragmatism. We then dig into how the works of European and Asian thinkers influenced\\xa0American philosophers like Emerson and Thoreau, while they yet tried to make something completely new. John and I then discuss how American pragmatism was developed in response to the philosophical issues Darwinism created around free will and what it means to live a moral life.\\xa0\\n\\nWe end our conversation discussing\\xa0how the pragmatist William James answered the question of whether life is worth living and how his answer might be said to hinge on one essential word:\\xa0if.\\n\\nGet the show notes at aom.is/americanphilosophy.'