Edwin Arthur Burtt (October 11, 1892 – September 6, 1989), usually cited as E. A. Burtt, was an
American philosopher
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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who wrote extensively on the
philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
. His doctoral thesis published as a book under the title ''The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science'' has had a significant influence upon the
history of science that is not generally recognized, according to
H. Floris Cohen.
Biography
He was born on October 11, 1892 in
Groton,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. His missionary parents took Burtt to China for several of his teenage years. He was educated at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. He graduated from Yale in 1915, where he was a member of
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
.
He attended
Union Theological Seminary and
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 ...
. He became the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
in 1941.
He died on September 6, 1989 in
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
,
New York.
Work
Though he maintained throughout his life a sympathy towards religious values and beliefs, he acknowledged that his philosophy had been marked by a reaction towards what he saw as his own father's too narrow outlook. Although Burtt participated in drafting the
Humanist Manifesto I
''A Humanist Manifesto'', also known as ''Humanist Manifesto I'' to distinguish it from later ''Humanist Manifestos'' in the series, was written in 1933 primarily by Raymond Bragg and published with 34 signers. Unlike the later manifestos, this fi ...
, he did not work on the project further, because he lost interest after his ideas that spiritual experience is the identification with categories of space, time, causality, and other fundamental physical principles were never included in the final publications. However, in 1973 he was one of the signers of the
Humanist Manifesto II
''Humanist Manifesto II'', written in 1973 by humanists Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, was an update to the previous ''Humanist Manifesto'' published in 1933, and the second entry in the ''Humanist Manifesto'' series. It begins with a statem ...
.
Legacy
Based on his own statements,
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book '' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term ''paradig ...
may very well have been unaware that in building on the philosophy of
Alexandre Koyré
Alexandre Koyré (, ; born Alexandr Vladimirovich (or Volfovich) Koyra (russian: Александр Владимирович (Вольфович) Койра); 29 August 1892 – 28 April 1964), also anglicized as Alexander Koyre, was a Fren ...
, he was in turn building on the philosophy of Burtt whose influence upon Koyré has been demonstrated as substantial.
[Diane Davis Villemaire, 2002, pp. 3–4]
Publications
*''The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science. A Historical and Critical Essay'' (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner; 1924, 1925)
*''The Metaphysics of
Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...
'' (1925)
*''Principles and Problems of Right Thinking'' (1928)
*''Religion in an Age of Science'' (1930)
*''The English Philosophers, from Bacon to Mill'' (1939)
*''Types of Religious Philosophy'' (1939)
*''The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha'' (1955)
*''Man Seeks the Divine: A Study in the History and Comparison of Religions'' (1957)
*''In Search of Philosophic Understanding'' (1965)
*''Light, Love and Life'' (1986)
See also
*
List of science and religion scholars
This is a list of notable individuals who have focused on studying the intersection of religion and science.
A
* S. Alexander
* Gordon W. Allport: noted Behavioural Psychologist & author of ''The Individual and his Religion'' (1951).
* Nathan Av ...
*
American philosophy
*
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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Notes
Sources
* Diane Davis Villemaire
''E.A. Burtt, Historian and Philosopher: A Study of the author of The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science''(Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burtt, Edwin Arthur
1892 births
1989 deaths
Philosophers of science
Yale University alumni
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni
Cornell University faculty
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American philosophers