Jacob Loewenberg (February 2, 1882 – March 27, 1969) was a

Latvian-American Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. History The first significant wave of Latvian settlers who immigrated ...

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 ...

.Staff report (March 30, 1969). Obituary. ''

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Life and career

Loewenberg was born in

Tukums Tukums (; german: Tuckum; liv, Tukāmō) is a town in the Zemgale region of Latvia. History The historical center of Tukums developed between trade routes leading from the mouth of the Daugava River to Prussia. The oldest part is today's Ta ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(present-day

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

) and moved to

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

at age 13. Fearing

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by the

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, he made his way to

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 ...

in 1904 by way of

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and

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. Loewenberg was accepted into

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

upon arrival and began studying philosophy, earning a bachelor's degree in 1908, a master's degree in 1909, and a doctorate in 1911 (with a thesis under the title ''The Genesis of Hegel's Dialectical Method''). At Harvard, he was influenced by

Josiah Royce Josiah Royce (; November 20, 1855 – September 14, 1916) was an American objective idealist philosopher and the founder of American idealism. His philosophical ideas included his version of personalism, defense of absolutism, idealism and his ...

and

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

. He taught German and Philosophy at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

before taking an appointment in the philosophy department at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1915. He became a full professor in 1925 and served as department chair from 1935 to 1941. In 1950, he refused to sign a

loyalty oath A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization or ...

demanded by the

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and was severed from the University.Staff report (August 23, 1950). UC Loyalty Oath Settlement Near: Regents Expected to Decide Fate of Nonsigners Friday. ''

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'' The

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restored his position, and he retired as Professor Emeritus in 1952. In 1962, Loewenberg was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree by the University.

Selected works

*"Problematic Realism" in ''Contemporary American Philosophy'' (1930) *Dialogues from Delphi (1949) * Carus Lectures, ''Reason and the Nature of Things'' (1959) *''Hegel's Phenomenology: Dialogues on the Life of the Mind'' (1965) *''Thrice-born: Selected Memories of an American Immigrant'' (1968)

References

External links

Jacob Loewenberg, Philosophy: Berkeley
via

J. Lowenberg, ''The Life of Georg Frederich Wilhelm Hegel''
* * 1882 births 1969 deaths People from Tukums People from Courland Governorate Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Latvian descent 20th-century American philosophers Harvard College alumni Hegel scholars {{US-philosopher-stub