HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (May 20, 1932 – September 18, 2020) was a Belgian-born American philosopher known for her work in the
philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
(in particular on the
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
s), history of philosophy (especially
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
,
Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...
and Descartes), and
moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...
.


Career

Rorty received her B.A. from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
in 1951, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1954 and 1961 respectively, and an M.A. from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
. She began her academic career at Wheaton College (Mass.) (1957–1961), then began teaching at Rutgers (
Livingston College Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs from 1969 to 2007. It was located on Livingston Campus (originally Kilmer) in Piscataway ...
) in 1962 and taught there through to 1988, by which time she had achieved the rank of distinguished professor. She was also professor in the history of ideas (and director of the program) at
Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
from 1995 to 2003, and from 2008 to 2013 was visiting professor at
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
. , she was a visiting professor at
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...
. She was also a lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard School of Medicine. Rorty was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships over the course of her career: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Studies (1968-1969), King's College, Cambridge (1971-1973), Institute for Advanced Study (1980-1981), John Simon Guggenheim (1990-1991), Woodrow Wilson Center (1994-1995), and the National Humanities Center (2007-2008).


Work

Rorty primarily worked on problems in moral psychology and moral education. She was especially interested in the many distinctive –-and often conflicting—functions of morality as a social practice, as it sets prohibitions, projects ideals, defines duties, and characterizes virtues. Exploring the dark side of some of the virtues—for example, courage as bravado, integrity as moral narcissism, ambivalent love—she analyzed the advantages of resistance to the obligations of morality, including the benefits of self-deception, the lures of moral weakness, the wisdom of ambivalence, and hidden rationales for allegedly irrational emotions. She approached many of these issues historically (through Aristotle, Spinoza, Hume and Freud) and anthropologically (projecting a study of exiles, immigrants, and refugees who perforce absorb a new set of 'moral' values.) Her final project was an unfinished book provisionally titled ''On the Other Hand: The Ethics of Ambivalence''. Rorty is the author of more than 120 scholarly articles. She wrote or edited more than a dozen scholarly books of original essays. A monograph, ''Mind in Action: Essays in Philosophy of Mind'', was published by Beacon Press in 1988 (paperback edition 1991). She also edited and contributed to ''Explaining Emotions'' (U. California Press, 1980), ''Essays on Aristotle's Ethics'' (1980, U.California Press), and co-edited ''Essays on Aristotle's De Anima'' (Oxford, 1992) with Martha Nussbaum. She initiated and served as general editor of ''Modern Studies in Philosophy'' (Doubleday-Anchor) and of ''Major Thinkers'' (University of California Press). Other notable books she edited include ''The Many Faces of Evil'' (Routledge, 2001), ''The Identities of Persons'' (1976, U. California Press) and ''The Many Faces of Philosophy'' (Oxford, 2000).


Personal life

Amélie Oksenberg, daughter of Polish Jews Klara and Israel Oksenberg, was born in Belgium and emigrated with her parents to
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, where she was raised on a farm. She enrolled at a young age at the University of Chicago, and went on to pursue a doctorate at Yale, where she married
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
, a fellow graduate student and philosopher. They had a son, Jay, and divorced in 1972. She wrote about her upbringing in "Dependency, Individuality and Work" and in "A Philosophic Travelogue," The Dewey Lecture, American Philosophical Association, ''Proceedings and Addresses,'' vol. 88, 2014.


Additional awards and fellowships

* 1971–1973, Fellow, King's College, Cambridge * 1984–1985, Visiting Honorary Research Associate, Philosophy, Harvard University * 1980–1981, Member, Institute for Advanced Study * 1990–1991, John Simon Guggenheim Fellow * 1994–1995, Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow * 2001–2002, Distinguished Woman Philosopher of the Year, Society for Women in Philosophy * 2007–2008, Fellow, National Humanities Center


References


External links


A 2010 interview of Rorty on self-deception on Why? Radio (Institute for Philosophy in Public Life)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rorty, Amelie 1932 births 2020 deaths American women philosophers Philosophers of mind Philosophers from Illinois Jewish philosophers 20th-century American philosophers American historians of philosophy 20th-century American women Belgian emigrants to the United States Belgian people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent 21st-century American women Yale University alumni