American philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. 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 political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville gave his own more detailed definition of a "Philosophical Method Among the Americans" in the opening paragraph of Book Two of Democracy In America.