This companion volume to the ten volumes of the Presidential Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 1901-2000 offers both a retrospective and introspective survey of presidential addresses delivered to the APA during the twentieth century. It documents and analyzes the extraordinary diversity of philosophical thought, as well as the maturation and professionalization of philosophy as a discipline in American academia.The first ten chapters each focus on one decade of the twentieth century, pointing out prominent topics and common themes, and discussing the philosophical schools and movements that informed them. The next nine chapters are topical essays, each centering on a philosophical issue or area. Of special interest is Nicholas Rescher's chapter on the way the possibility of philosophical progress was a frequent matter raised for discussion in presidential addresses.

Since the publication of On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, the influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has been of significant debate. Among the greatest concerns over Darwinian evolution is its implications on notably human characteristics such as the mind, meaning, free will, morality, and religion. Many have feared that Darwinism leads straight to nihilism, and for this reason the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett has called Darwin's idea a dangerous one. Among the first philosophers to consider the implications of evolution for human activity and our self-conception is John Dewey, who wrote extensively throughout the early twentieth century with the aim of reconciling Darwinism with our self-conception. Daniel Dennett has recently taken up a similar project in the latter-half of the same century. Yet contemporary scholarship has neglected the striking similarities between their evolutionary accounts of persons. I argue that there is a strong affinity between Dewey and Dennett that needs further exploration. I begin such an investigation of their similarities by looking at the evolution of mind and consciousness, of language, meaning and culture, of selfhood, and of freedom and morality, as each philosopher depicts them. My conclusion focuses on what this evolutionary account of our self-conception means for contemporary debates over politics, science, and religion.