John Elof Boodin (November 14, 1869 – November 14, 1950) was a Swedish-born American

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 ...

and educator. He was the author of numerous books proposing a systematic interpretation of nature. Boodin's work preserved the tradition of philosophical idealism within the framework of contemporary science. Boodin also focused on the social nature of human behavior believing an understanding required an appreciation of individual participation in social life and

interpersonal relationship The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

Background

John Elof Boodin was born in Pjätteryd Parish in Älmhult,

Kronoberg County Kronoberg County (; sv, Kronobergs län) is a county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. Kronoberg is one of three counties in the province of Småland. It borders the counties of Skåne, Halland, Jönköping, Kalmar, and Blekinge. Its capit ...

, Sweden. Boodin was a younger son of sizable rural family. In his youth, several of his brothers had already immigrated to the United States. During his lifetime additional siblings continued to settle in America. He attended the Fjellstedt mission training school established by Swedish Lutheran missionary

Peter Fjellstedt Peter Fjellstedt (17 September 1802 – 4 January 1881) was a Swedish '' Nyevangelist'' missionary and preacher who founded the Fjellstedt School and Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen. Biography Upbringing Fjellstedt was born to carpente ...

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the ca ...

. He emigrated to the United States from

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized f ...

, Sweden in 1887 at the age of 18. He taught at the parochial school of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistic ...

. Boodin subsequently attended Augustana College in

Rock Island, Illinois Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located on t ...

. He was later educated at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

and

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

where he was influenced by the psychologists James Rowland Angell,

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

, and Josiah Royce. He studied philosophy under James Seth at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

where he earned his

B. A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

and

M. A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

before doctoral work at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 1899.

Career

Boodin held positions at Grinnell College (1900–1904), the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

(1904–1913), Carleton College, Minnesota (1913–1927),

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, and

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

(1927–1928). During his professional career and into his retirement, he published eight books. He also wrote more than sixty articles for various scholarly journals. The workpapers of John Elof Boodin are maintained at the University of California Los Angeles Library Special Collections.

Awards and honors

Among many honors bestowed upon him were his election in 1937 to membership in the permanent council of the World Congress of Philosophy; membership in the

Authors' Club The Authors' Club is a British membership organisation established as a place where writers could meet and talk. It was founded by the novelist and critic Walter Besant in 1891. It is headquartered at the National Liberal Club. The Authors' Cl ...

of London; appointment as Sir John Adams Lecturer in 1935 and as Faculty Research Lecturer in 1937 at the

. He served as director of the Los Angeles Public Library Lectures on Philosophy and as president of The Metaphysical Society in Los Angeles. He also served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Western Division (1932–33).

Selected works

*''Time and Reality'' (1904) *''Truth and Reality: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge'' (1911) *''A Realistic Universe - An Introduction to Metaphysics'' (1916) *''Cosmic Evolution: Outlines of Cosmic Idealism'' (1925) *''God and Creation (1934) two volumes: Three Interpretations of the Universe, and God *''The Social Mind; Foundations of Social Philosophy'' (1939) *''Religion Of Tomorrow'' (1943) *''Studies in Philosophy; the Posthumous Papers of John Elof Boodin'' (1957)

References

Other sources

* Eugene Clay Holmes (1942) ''Social Philosophy and the Social Mind. A Study of the Genetic Methods of J. M. Baldwin, G. H. Mead and John Elof Boodin'' (Columbia University) *James Alfred Martin, Jr. (1945) ''Empirical Philosophers of Religion, with Special Reference to Boodin, Brightman, Hocking, Macintosh and Wieman'' (King's Crown Press)

External links

John Elof Boodin’s Theory of Consciousness
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boodin, John 1869 births 1950 deaths People from Älmhult Municipality 19th-century American philosophers American Lutherans Grinnell College faculty Idealists University of Colorado alumni University of Minnesota alumni Brown University alumni Harvard University alumni Philosophers of time University of Kansas faculty University of Southern California faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Swedish emigrants to the United States 20th-century American philosophers