Arthur Fisher Bentley (October 16, 1870 – May 21, 1957) was an American

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

who worked in the fields of

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and who contributed to the development of a behavioral methodology of political science.

Family

The son of Charles Frederick Bentley (1843–1908), and Angeline Alice Bentley (1845-1911), née Dreisbach, Arthur Fisher Bentley was born at in

Freeport, Illinois Freeport is the county seat and largest city of Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,973 at the 2020 census, and the mayor of Freeport is Jodi Miller, elected in 2017. Freeport is known for hosting the second Linc ...

on 16 October 1870. He married Anna Harrison (1868-1924) in 1899.

Education

He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1892 and his Ph.D. in 1895 from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Career

He was the second person to win the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitutiona ...

's Humanist of the Year Award, in 1954. He moved to

Paoli, Indiana Paoli ( ) is a town within Paoli Township and the county seat of Orange County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 3,677 at the 2010 census. History Paoli was laid out and platted in 1816. It was named for Pasquale Paoli Ash, the s ...

in 1910 where he lived for the rest of his life.

Orientation

Bentley held that interactions of groups are the basis of political life, and rejected statist abstractions. In his opinion, group activity determined legislation, administration and adjudication. These ideas of process-based behavioralism later became central to political science. His tenet that "social movements are brought about by group interaction" is a basic feature of contemporary pluralist and interest-group approaches.

Works

''The Process of Government'', published in 1908, had much influence on political science from the 1930s to the 1950s. "The Human Skin: Philosophy's Last Line of Defense" was published in ''Philosophy of Science'' (Bentley, 1941). In 1949, he co-authored ''

Knowing and the Known ''Knowing and the Known'' is a 1949 book by John Dewey and Arthur Bentley. Overview As well as a Preface, an Introduction and an Index, the book consists of 12 chapters, or papers, as the authors call them in their introduction. Chapters 1 (Vag ...

'', a series of papers on

, with

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

Publications

* 1893: ''The Condition of the Western Farmer as Illustrated by the Economic History of a Nebraska Township''. * 1908: ''The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures''. * 1926: ''Relativity In Man And Society''. * 1932: ''Linguistic Analysis of Mathematics''. * 1935: ''Behavior, Knowledge, Fact''. * 1949 (with

): ''Knowing and the Known''. * 1954: ''Inquiry Into Inquiries: Essays in Social Theory''.

Death

He died in

on 21 May 1957.

Notes

References

Bentley, A.F. (1893), ''The Condition of the Western Farmer as Illustrated by the Economic History of a Nebraska Township'', Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Bentley, A.F. (1895), ''The Units of Investigation in the Social Sciences'', Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University.Bentley, A.F. (1908), ''The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* Bentley, A.F. (1926), ''Relativity In Man And Society'', New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Bentley, A.F. (1932), ''Linguistic Analysis of Mathematics'', Bloomington, IN: The Prinicipia Press, Inc.

Bentley, A.F. (1935), ''Behavior, Knowledge, Fact'', Bloomington, IN: The Principia Press.
* Bentley, A.F. (1938), "Physicists and Fairies", ''Philosophy of Science'', Vol.5, No.2, (April 1938), pp.132-165. * Bentley, A.F. (1941), "The Human Skin: Philosophy's Last Line of Defense", ''Philosophy of Science'', Vol.8, No.1, (January 1941), pp.1-19. * Bentley, A.F. (1945a), "On a Certain Vagueness in Logic: I", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.42, No.1 (4 January 1945), pp.6-27. * Bentley, A.F. (1945b), "On a Certain Vagueness in Logic: II", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.42, No.2 (18 January 1945), pp.39-51. * Bentley, A.F. (1946), "Logicians' Underlying Postulations", Philosophy of Science'', Vol.13, No.1, (January 1946), pp.3-19. * Bentley, A.F. (1947), "The New 'Semiotic'", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', Vol.8, No.1, (September 1947), pp.107-132. * Bentley, A.F. (1949), "Signs of Error", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', Vol.10, No. 1, (September 1949), pp.99-106. * Bentley, A.F. (Ratner, S. ed.) (1954),''Inquiry Into Inquiries: Essays in Social Theory'', Boston: The Beacon Press. * Bentley, A.F. (Ratner, S. ed.) (1969), ''Makers, Users, and Masters'', Syracuse, NY.: Syracuse University Press. * Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1945a), "A Search for Firm Names", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.42, No.1, (4 January 1945), pp.5-6. * Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1945b), "A Terminology for Knowings and Knowns", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.42, No.9, (26 April 1945), pp.225-247. * Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1945c), "Postulations", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.42, No.24, (22 November 1945), pp.645-662. * Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1946), "Specification", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.43, No.24, (21 November 1946), pp.645-663. * Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1947), "'Definition'", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.44, No.11, (22 May 1947), pp.281-306.
Dewey, J. & Bentley, A.F. (1949), ''Knowing and the Known'', Boston: The Beacon Press.
American political scientists American semioticians 1870 births 1957 deaths People from Paoli, Indiana Johns Hopkins University alumni People from Freeport, Illinois Columbia University faculty University of Chicago faculty {{US-polisci-bio-stub