Title
Freedom, Luck, and Catastrophe: Ernest Hemingway, John Dewey, and Immanuel Kant
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Reads A Farewell to Arms through an epistemological lens, examining the roles of luck and will in determining morality. Asserts Henry’s obsessive rule following and disregard for consequences expresses his Kantian morality, which complements Catherine’s consequentialist Deweyan morality. Explores how they influence each other until both moralities become muddled and ineffectual, thus demonstrating Hemingway’s critique of both moral systems.
Published in
The Language of War: Literature and Culture in the U.S. From the Civil War Through World War II
Date
2002
Pages
107-130
COinS
Citation
Dawes, James. “Freedom, Luck, and Catastrophe: Ernest Hemingway, John Dewey, and Immanuel Kant.” In The Language of War: Literature and Culture in the U.S. From the Civil War Through World War II, 107-130. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.