Borden Parker Bowne (January 14, 1847 – April 1, 1910) was an American Christian philosopher,
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
minister and theologian. He was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature
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, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
nine times.
Life
Bowne was born on January 14, 1847, near
Leonardville in
Monmouth County,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. In 1876 he became a professor of philosophy at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
, where he taught for more than thirty years. He later served as the first dean of the graduate school. Bowne was an acute critic of
mechanistic
The mechanical philosophy is a form of natural philosophy which compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism (i.e. a machine). The mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of early modern Europe. One of the first expos ...
determinism
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
,
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
, and
naturalism. He categorized his views as
Kantianized
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
anism, transcendental empiricism, and, finally,
personalism
Personalism is an intellectual stance that emphasizes the importance of human persons. Personalism exists in many different versions, and this makes it somewhat difficult to define as a philosophical and theological movement. Friedrich Schleierm ...
, emphasizing freedom and the importance of the self, a philosophical branch of
liberal theology: of this branch Bowne is the dominant figure; this personalism is sometimes called ''Boston personalism'', in contrast with the California personalism of
George Holmes Howison. Bowne's ''
magnum opus'', ''Metaphysics'', was published in 1882. Bowne was influenced by
Hermann Lotze. He died on April 1, 1910, in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
.
Legacy
Bowne has influenced philosophy in various ways. For instance, there has been a direct line of personalists from Bowne through his student,
Edgar Sheffield Brightman (1884–1954), through Brightman's student,
Peter Anthony Bertocci
Peter Bertocci (1910–1989) was an American philosopher and Borden Parker Bowne professor of philosophy, emeritus, at Boston University. He was a president of the Metaphysical Society of America.
Bertocci was an advocate of theistic finitism
T ...
(1910–1989), to Bertocci's student,
Thomas O. Buford
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
(born 1932).
There has also been a more general influence, as with
Martin Luther King Jr., who studied at Boston University, and spoke in his ''
Stride Toward Freedom
''Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story'' (published 1958) is Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic account of the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott. The book describes the conditions of African Americans living in Alabama during the era, and ...
'' of having gained "a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality."
Bowne received nine nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1906 and 1909—one from his own sister.
Published works
* ''The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer'' (New York, 1874).
* ''Studies in Theism'' (New York, 1882).
* ''Metaphysics: A Study in First Principles'' (New York, 1882; revised ed., 1898).
* ''Introduction to Psychological Theory'' (New York, 1886).
* ''Philosophy of Theism'' (New York, 1887; revised ed. 1902).
* ''The Principles of Ethics'' (New York, 1892).
* ''Theory of Thought and Knowledge'' (New York, 1899).
* ''The Christian Revelation'' (Cincinnati, 1898).
* ''The Christian Life'' (Cincinnati, 1899).
* ''The Atonement'' (Cincinnati, 1900).
* ''The Immanence of God'' (Boston, 1905).
* ''Personalism'' (Boston, 1908).
* ''Studies in Christianity'' (1909).
* ''A Man’s View of Woman Suffrage'' (Boston, 1910).
* ''The Essence of Religion'' (Boston, 1910).
* ''Kant and Spencer: A Critical Exposition'' (Boston, 1912).
See also
*
George Holmes Howison
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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Max Scheler
Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Zachar ...
, the primary figure in German personalism
Notes
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Further reading
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Auxier, Randall E., ed. (1997). "The Relevance of Borden Parker Bowne" (special issue). ''The Personalist Forum''. 13 (1). . .
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowne, Borden Parker
1847 births
1910 deaths
19th-century American philosophers
19th-century Methodist ministers
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century Methodist ministers
American Methodist clergy
Boston University faculty
Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist philosophers
Methodist theologians
New York University alumni
Philosophers from Massachusetts
Philosophers from New Jersey