Atmosphere in Pragmatism

ABSTRACT The concept of atmosphere is now central within phenomenology, critical theory, and hermeneutics, but it has not yet played a similarly significant role in contemporary pragmatism. Part of the problem is that the term “atmosphere” is not especially salient in classical pragmatism, though the ideas encompassed by that term do play an important role there. This article explores some important ways that classical pragmatist philosophy deploys the ambiguous, polyvalent, and lexically multiple notion of atmosphere. Along with its primary scientific sense as the mixture of gases that surrounds the earth, atmosphere has the central meaning of mood, tone, or felt quality that pervades a situation or place. Having elsewhere shown the vital role of mood in pragmatism, this article extends the study of atmosphere in pragmatism by considering how that notion functions through other terms, including the term “atmosphere” itself, but also through closely associated terms like “ambience,” “climate,” “weather,” “milieu,” “aura,” “halo,” “penumbra,” “situation,” or “felt quality.” This article will focus on the pragmatism of James and Dewey, because the term “atmosphere” is strikingly absent in C. S. Peirce, notwithstanding his many years as a meteorologist for the US Coast Survey.