Philosophy & Rhetoric Oct 2025

The Interdisciplinary Uncanny: On Not Recognizing Richard McKeon

Elizabeth S. Goodstein Emory University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Revered and feared during his lifetime, Richard McKeon left a rich and ambiguous intellectual legacy. The architect and practitioner of a cosmopolitan and expansive, historically and philosophically self-reflexive interdisciplinarity who reimagined liberal arts education for an era of transformation delighted in transcending boundaries and destabilizing assumptions and in demonstrating the relativity of every foundation to a particular constellation of ideas and methods. This essay explores the uncanny legacy of McKeon’s simultaneously visionary and old-fashioned style of thought, meditating on the timeliness, at this moment of crisis in and beyond the university, of a philosophical pluralism that embraces multiplicity, ambiguity, and difference without abandoning the commitment to critique.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2025-10-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0127
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (46)

  1. (1943/1977)
    Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Biography
  2. Aristotle (1926)
    Art of Rhetoric
  3. Aristotle (1934)
    Art of Rhetoric
  4. (1996)
    “Review of On Knowing—The Natural Sciences by Richard McKeon, David B. Owen and Zahava K.…
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society
  5. Betz, Margaret. 2024. “Joseph M. Betz (1940–2024).” Accessed 31May2025. https://www.apaonline.org/page/memori…
Show all 46 →
  1. (1967)
    The Knowledge Most Worth Having
  2. Booth, Wayne. 1982. “Between Two Generations: The Heritage of the Chicago School.”Profession1982: 19–26. http…
  3. (1988)
    The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occasions 1967–1988
  4. (2015)
    The University of Chicago: A History
  5. (1962)
    Poetry and Mathematics
  6. (1986)
    “Richard Peter McKeon, 1900–1985.”
    Journal of the History of Ideas
  7. (2000)
    Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy
  8. (2010)
    Reengaging the Prospects of Rhetoric
  9. Gabryel, Carleigh. 2024. “UNC-Chapel Hill Researchers Create Artificial Cells That Act Like Living Cells.”UNC…
  10. (2000)
    Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy
  11. (1985)
    “Richard Peter McKeon 1900–1985.”
    Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association
  12. (2002)
    “Style as Substance: Georg Simmel’s Phenomenology of Culture.”
    Cultural Critique  ↗
  13. (2017)
    Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary
  14. (1973)
    “The Liberal Arts Movement: From Ideas to Practice.”
    St. John’s College Review
  15. (2006)
    Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America
  16. (1930/1958)
    Selections from Medieval Philosophers II Roger Bacon to William of Ockam
  17. (1949)
    “The Nature and Teaching of the Humanities.”
    Journal of General Education
  18. (1953)
    Thirteen Americans: Their Spiritual Autobiographies
  19. (1967)
    The Knowledge Most Worth Having
  20. (1979)
    “Honors Students and Honors Programs of Studies.”
  21. (1982)
    “Criticism and the Liberal Arts: The Chicago School of Criticism.”
  22. (1987)
    Rhetoric: Essays in Invention and Discovery
  23. (1990)
    Freedom and History and Other Essays: An Introduction to the Thought of Richard McKeon
  24. (1990)
    “Philosophic Semantics and Philosophic Inquiry.”
  25. (1994)
    On Knowing—The Natural Sciences
  26. McKeon, Richard. 2006. “Guide to the Richard Peter McKeon Papers (1918–1985).”Hanna Holborn Gray Special Coll…
  27. (2017)
    On Knowing—The Social Sciences
  28. (1957)
    The Freedom to Read
  29. (1959)
    The Edicts of Asoka
  30. Nobel Foundation. n.d. “Nobel Prizes 2024.” Accessed 31May2025. https://www.nobelprize.org/all-nobel-prizes-2024/.
  31. Obermiller, Tim Andrew. 1994. “Will the Real Richard McKeon Please Stand Up?”University of Chicago Magazine, …
  32. (1984)
    “R.S. Crane.”
    American Scholar
  33. (1991)
    Remembering the University of Chicago
  34. (1990)
    Richard McKeon: A Study
  35. (1967)
    The Knowledge Most Worth Having
  36. (2019)
    Humanities at the Crossroads: The Chicago Neo-Aristotelian Critics and the University of …
  37. (2018)
    “The Forgotten Philosopher: A Review Essay on Richard McKeon.”
    Review of Politics  ↗
  38. (1968/2009)
    George Steiner at the New Yorker
  39. Thomas, Robert McG.Jr. 1995. “Walter Gellhorn, Law Scholar and Professor Dies at 89.”New York Times…
  40. (2000)
    Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy
  41. (2000)
    Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →