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

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and author of many books exploring human interpretation of the universe as well as biographies on C.S. Peirce and

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

. 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 het ...

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey, United States. It has a wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three schools. While affiliated with the Methodism, Me ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. 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 Pennsyl ...

. 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 Universalism, Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Ch ...

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 Banks Rhine, Joseph B. Rhine. Its purpose has been "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate k ...

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 can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...

’ or ‘

religious naturalism Religious naturalism is a framework for religious orientation in which a naturalist worldview is used to respond to types of questions and aspirations that are parts of many religions. It has been described as "a perspective that finds religious ...

,’ 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 scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

George Santayana George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the Un ...

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 Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

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

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

with the aid of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

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 (; May 3, 1913 – October 8, 1981) was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the ...

, and

Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; ; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, ; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She has taught at Colum ...

and theologically through liberal Protestant thinkers

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

and

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (; ; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twenti ...

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 thinker ...

is another influence on Corrington. As an alternative to contemporary

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

perspectives that are either too dependent upon a brute descriptive

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

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 (14 April 112611 December 1198), archaically Latinization of names, Latinized as Averroes, was an Arab Muslim polymath and Faqīh, jurist from Al-Andalus who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astron ...

, Thomas of Aquinas,

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

, 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, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

(among others)” between

natura naturans Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

(nature naturing) and

natura naturata Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

(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

912 Year 912 ( CMXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. __NOTOC__ Events By place Byzantine Empire * May 11 – Emperor Leo VI (the Wise) dies after a 26-year reign, in which he has completed the Byzantine c ...

Teleology. In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Applet ...

descriptions of nature and finds in

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

'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 religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...

, theology,

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

, and semiotics as well as editor of several books on

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

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