THE PRAGMATIST VISION OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
THE PRAGMATIST VISION OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
Author(s): Justyna FruzińskaSubject(s): Philosophy, Psychology, Epistemology, Logic, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics, Theology and Religion, Cognitive linguistics, 19th Century Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy, Pragmatism, Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Culture and social structure , Cognitive Psychology, Phenomenology, American Literature, Psychology of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Nathaniel Hawthorne; “Young Goodman Brown;” William James; religious experience; pragmatism; truth
Summary/Abstract: “Young Goodman Brown” has been read, among others, as Hawthorne’s commentary on Puritan obsession with sin, as an exploration of the internal demons of the human psyche, or as an allegory of losing one’s faith. Moreover, since the story does not settle whether Brown is right about his neighbors’ hypocrisy, scholars tend to either argue in favor of the reality of Goodman Brown’s vision or see in it a dangerous illusion. In my paper, I look at Hawthorne’s short story through the prism of William James’s philosophy of pragmatism in general, and his “Varieties of Religious Experience” in particular, which allows me to understand better the narrator’s final comment about the impossibility to decide whether Brown’s vision was true or not. I treat here Hawthorne as a proto-pragmatist, who, describing Brown’s religious experience, is more interested in its outcomes for the protagonist’s life than its origin.
Journal: Review of International American Studies
- Issue Year: 19/2026
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 245-257
- Page Count: 13
- Language: English
