American philosophy

Not to be confused with Indigenous American philosophy or Latin American philosophy.

"North American philosophy" redirects here. For Canadian philosophy, see Philosophy in Canada.

American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophy produced by American people. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collective American identity over the history of the nation". The Ivy League colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have long been influential.

Colonial America was influenced by the Puritan thought of Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Edwards. The philosophy of the American Revolution and Founding Fathers of the United States such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson is largely seen as an extension of the European Enlightenment. A small number of philosophies are known as uniquely American in origin, namely pragmatism and transcendentalism, with their most prominent proponents being the philosophers William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson respectively.

American philosophy since the 20th century is mostly analytic philosophy. Some of the most prominent American analytic philosophers are W. V. O. Quine and Saul Kripke.