Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an American philosopher and

intellectual historian Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...

, who founded the discipline known as the history of ideas with his book ''The Great Chain of Being'' (1936), on the topic of that name, which is regarded as 'probably the single most influential work in the history of ideas in the United States during the last half century'.Simo Knuuttila (ed.
''Reforging the Great Chain of Being: Studies of the History of Modal Theories,''
Springer Science & Business Media, 2013 p.3

Biography

Lovejoy was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, while his father was doing medical research there. Eighteen months later, his mother, a daughter of Johann Gerhard Oncken, committed suicide, whereupon his father gave up medicine and became a clergyman. Lovejoy studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

, first at the University of California at Berkeley, then at Harvard under William James and Josiah Royce. He did not earn a Ph.D. In 1901, he resigned from his first job, at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, to protest the dismissal of a colleague who had offended a trustee. The President of Harvard then vetoed hiring Lovejoy on the grounds that he was a known troublemaker. Over the subsequent decade, he taught at Washington University,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and the University of Missouri. He never married. As a professor of philosophy at

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

from 1910 to 1938, Lovejoy founded and long presided over that university's History of Ideas Club, where many prominent and budding intellectual and social historians, as well as literary critics, gathered. In 1940 he co-founded the '' Journal of the History of Ideas'' with

Philip P. Wiener Philip P. Wiener (July 8, 1905 – April 5, 1992) was an American philosopher who was a specialist on Pragmatism, Charles S. Pierce, Leibnitz, the history and philosophy of science, and the history of ideas. He co-founded the ''Journal of the Hi ...

. Lovejoy insisted that the history of ideas should focus on "unit ideas," single concepts (namely simple concepts sharing an abstract name with other concepts that were to be conceptually distinguished). Abstract nouns like 'pragmatism' 'idealism', 'rationalism' and the like were, in Lovejoy's view, constituted by distinct, analytically separate ideas, which the historian of the genealogy of ideas had to thresh out, and show how the basic unit ideas combine and recombine with each other over time. The idea has, according to Simo Knuuttila, exercised a greater attraction on literary critics than on philosophers. Lovejoy was an opponent of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1930, he published a paper criticizing Einstein's relativistic concept of simultaneity as arbitrary. Lovejoy was active in the public arena. He helped found the American Association of University Professors and the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

chapter of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. However, he qualified his belief in civil liberties to exclude what he considered threats to a free system. Thus, at the height of the McCarthy Era (in the February 14, 1952, edition of the ''Journal of Philosophy'') Lovejoy stated that, since it was a "matter of empirical fact" that membership in the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

contributed "to the triumph of a world-wide organization" which was opposed to "freedom of inquiry, of opinion and of teaching," membership in the party constituted grounds for dismissal from academic positions. He also published numerous opinion pieces in the Baltimore press. He died in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

on December 30, 1962.

Scholarship

In the domain 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. Epi ...

, Lovejoy is remembered for an influential critique of the pragmatic movement, especially in the essay "The Thirteen Pragmatisms", written in 1908. William F. Bynum, looking back at Lovejoy's ''Great Chain of Being'' after 40 years, describes it as "a familiar feature of the intellectual landscape", indicating its great influence and "brisk" ongoing sales. Bynum argues that much more research is needed into how the concept of the great chain of being was replaced, but he agrees that Lovejoy was right that the crucial period was the end of the 18th century when "the Enlightenment's chain of being was dismantled".William F. Bynum
"The Great Chain of Being after Forty Years: An Appraisal"
''History of Science'' 13 (1975): 1-28

Books

*
Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity
'' (1935). (with George Boas). Johns Hopkins U. Press. 1997 edition: * ''The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea'' (1936). Harvard University Press. Reprinted by Harper & Row, , 2005 paperback: . * ''Essays in the History of Ideas'' (1948). Johns Hopkins U. Press.
''The Revolt Against Dualism''
(1960). Open Court Publishing. * ''The Reason, the Understanding, and Time'' (1961). Johns Hopkins U. Press. * ''Reflections on Human Nature'' (1961). Johns Hopkins U. Press. * ''The Thirteen Pragmatisms and Other Essays'' (1963). Johns Hopkins U. Press.

Articles

"The Entangling Alliance of Religion and History,"
''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. V, October 1906/ July 1907.
"The Desires of the Self-Conscious,"
''The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods,'' Vol. 4, No. 2, Jan. 17, 1907.
"The Place of Linnaeus in the History of Science,"
''The Popular Science Monthly,'' Vol. LXXI, 1907.
"The Origins of Ethical Inwardness in Jewish Thought,"
''The American Journal of Theology,'' Vol. XI, 1907.
"Kant and the English Platonists."
In ''Essays, Philosophical and Psychological,'' Longmans, Green & Co., 1908.
"Pragmatism and Theology,"
''The American Journal of Theology,'' Vol. XII, 1908.
"The Theory of a Pre-Christian Cult of Jesus,"
''The Monist,'' Vol. XVIII, No. 4, October 1908.
"The Thirteen Pragmatisms,"
''The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods,'' Vol. V, January/December, 1908.
"The Argument for Organic Evolution Before the 'Origin of Species',"Part II
''Popular Science Monthly,'' Vol. LXXV, July/December, 1909.
"Schopenhauer as an Evolutionist,"
''The Monist,'' Vol. XXI, 1911.
"Kant and Evolution,"
''Popular Science Monthly,'' Vol. LXXVII, 1910
Part II
''Popular Science Monthly,'' Vol. LXXVIII, 1911.
"The Problem of Time in Recent French Philosophy,"Part IIPart III
''The Philosophical Review,'' Vol. XXI, 1912.
"Relativity, Reality, and Contradiction"
''The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods'', 1914.
"Pragmatism Versus the Pragmatist."
In: ''Essays in Critical Realism.'' London: Macmillan & Co., 1920. * "Professional Ethics and Social Progress," ''The North American Review,'' March 1924.
"The Dialectical Argument Against Absolute Simultaneity"
''The Journal of Philosophy'', 1930. * "Plans for the Future," ''Free World,'' November 1943.

Miscellany

"Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr Von,"
''A Cyclopedia of Education,'' ed. by Paul Monroe, The Macmillan Company, 1911.
"The Unity of Science,"
''The University of Missouri Bulletin: Science Series,'' Vol. I, N°. 1, January 1912.
''Bergson & Romantic Evolutionism; Two Lectures Delivered Before the Union, September 5 & 12, 1913,''
University of California Press, 1914.

References

External links

Works by Arthur O. Lovejoy
at JSTOR.
''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'' article
on the Great Chain of Being.

Includes a short biography. * Dale Keiger

''"The Chinese Origin of Romanticism"''
in: ''Essays in the History of Ideas'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1948. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovejoy, Arthur 1873 births 1962 deaths American historians American literary critics German emigrants to the United States People from Berlin Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni People from the Province of Brandenburg Philosophers of time University of Missouri faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty American Civil Liberties Union people Presidents of the American Association of University Professors Relativity critics