Robert S. Corrington (born May 30, 1950) is an American

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and author of many books exploring human interpretation of the universe as well as biographies on

C.S. Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

and

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...

. He is currently the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of

Philosophical Theology Philosophical theology is both a branch and form of theology in which philosophical methods are used in developing or analyzing theological concepts. It therefore includes natural theology as well as philosophical treatments of orthodox and heter ...

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Before that he was a professor at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. He is a Senior Fellow of the American Institute for Philosophical and Cultural Thought. Corrington is member of

Unitarian Universalist Association Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, both P ...

and The Theosophical Society of America and a lecturer for both organizations, and he is also an affiliate of The

Parapsychological Association The Parapsychological Association (PA) was formed in 1957 as a professional society for parapsychologists following an initiative by Joseph B. Rhine. Its purpose has been "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate knowledge of the fie ...

Ecstatic naturalism

Robert S. Corrington's work contributes to philosophical and theological inquiry through the development of a perspective called 'ecstatic naturalism’. Ecstatic naturalism, also referred to as ‘deep

pantheism Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...

’ or ‘

religious naturalism Religious naturalism combines a naturalist worldview with ideals, perceptions, traditions, and values that have been traditionally associated with many religions or religious institutions. "Religious naturalism is a perspective that finds religi ...

,’ has emerged through Corrington's eleven books and over eighty articles on the subject. His influences are many and range across the disciplines of philosophy, theology, science, and psychology. Deep appreciation of the American philosophers

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

Justus Buchler Justus Buchler (March 27, 1914 – March 19, 1991) was an American philosopher, author and professor. He made contributions to the subjects of naturalism and metaphysics, introducing the concept of the ''natural complex''. Biography Buchler ...

and

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

grounds Corrington's insights in a pragmatist mode even as his work creatively extends this tradition philosophically through a psychologically sophisticated

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

with the aid of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

Otto Rank Otto Rank (; ; né Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, ...

Heinz Kohut Heinz Kohut (3 May 1913 – 8 October 1981) was an Austrians, Austrian-born United States, American psychoanalyst best known for his development of self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamics, psychodynamic/psychoanaly ...

, and

Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...

and theologically through liberal Protestant thinkers

Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional P ...

and

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologi ...

toward a Hindu-inspired Emersonian post-Christian nature spirituality.

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

is another influence on Corrington. As an alternative to contemporary

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

perspectives that are either too dependent upon a brute descriptive

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...

on the one hand or to an honorific process cosmology on the other, ecstatic naturalism, like all versions of naturalism, assumes that nature is all there is; there is no recourse made to supernaturalistic forces or entities. For Corrington, however, ‘nature’ does not refer to anything, but is the dynamic entirety, an extremely wide and deeply vast reality that creates itself out of itself alone. In order to effectively speak or theorize about nature, then, Corrington has picked up on “a distinction dear to

Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psycholog ...

Thomas of Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

, and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

(among others)” between

natura naturans Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

(nature naturing) and

natura naturata Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

(nature natured). (A Semiotic Theory p. 40) The perspective of ecstatic naturalism attempts to remain accountable to the insights of evolutionary sciences even as it probes ever deeper into those aspects of nature that elude strictly scientific inquiries. As a naturalist, Corrington is deeply suspicious of

teleological Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

descriptions of nature and finds in

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

's ‘will to life’ a foundational ‘intention’ in organisms which anticipates Darwinian explanations of life's perpetuation.

Bibliography

Robert S. Corrington is the author of 12 books and 80 articles in the fields of philosophy,

theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

, theology,

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

, and semiotics as well as editor of several books on

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

and

. He has also authored two plays. ;Books * ''Editor (with Hausman, Carl and Seebohm, Thomas M.):'' ''Pragmatism Considers Phenomenology'' ''(1987)'' * ''The Community of Interpreters: On the Hermeneutics of Nature and the Bible in the American Philosophical Tradition'' ''(1987, 2nd ed. 1995)'' * ''Editor (with Marsoobian, Armen and Wallace, Kathleen): Buchler, Justus'' ''Metaphysics of Natural Complexes'' ''(1990)'' * ''Editor (with Marsoobian, Armen and Wallace, Kathleen):'' ''Nature's Perspective: Prospects of Ordinal Metaphysics'' ''(1991)'' * ''Nature and Spirit: An Essay in Ecstatic Naturalism'' ''(1992)'' * ''An Introduction to C.S. Peirce: Philosopher, Semiotician, and Ecstatic Naturalist'' ''(1993)'' * ''Ecstatic Naturalism: Signs of the World'' ''(1994)'' * ''Nature's Self: Our Journey from Origin to Spirit'' ''(1996)'' * ''Nature's Religion'' ''(1997)'' * ''A Semiotic Theory of Theology and Philosophy'' ''(2000)'' * ''Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist'' ''(2003)'' * ''Riding the Windhorse: Manic Depressive Disorder and the Quest for Wholeness'' ''(2003)'' * ''Nature's Sublime: An Essay In Aesthetic Naturalism (2013)'' * ''Deep Pantheism:'' ''Toward a New Transcendentalism'' ''(2016)'' * ''Nature and Nothingness: An Essay in Ordinal Phenomenology (2016)'' ;Plays * ''Black Hole Sonata (or Waiting for Steven Hawking)'' * ''One, Two, Three'' Robert S. Corrington has also contributed to numerous academic journals, e.g., ''International Philosophical Quarterly'', the ''American Journal of Semiotics'', ''American Journal of Theology and Philosophy'', ''Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society'', ''The Journal of Speculative Philosophy: New Series'', ''The Southern Journal of Philosophy'', ''

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture The ''Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture'' (''JSRNC'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal on religious studies. The journal is the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. The ...

'', and ''Semiotica''.

Affiliations

* International Association of Semiotic Studies * Institute for Religious and Philosophical Thought (executive board, 1992–95) * American Academy of Religion * American Philosophical Association * C.S. Peirce Society * North American Paul Tillich Society * Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy * Karl Jaspers Society of North America * Semiotic Society of America (executive board, 1992–94) * C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology * Unitarian Universalist Association * Theosophical Society of America

Sources

* Robert S. Corrington's home page at Drew University (see below) *

References

External links