Morris Lazerowitz (October 22, 1907 – February 25, 1987) was
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
-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 author.
Early life and education
Born Morris Laizerowitz in
Lodz, Poland, his father, Max and eldest sister emigrated to the United States in 1912 and through their hard work, saved enough money to bring the rest of the family to join them three years later. The family settled in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
. Morris studied the violin and becoming proficient enough to be substituting in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by the age of nineteen. However he was forced by a back injury to give this up.
In 1928, Lazerowitz enrolled at
Nebraska University
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
and was taught philosophy by
O.K. Bouwsma. Lazerowitz completed his degree at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1933. A traveling fellowship, 1936-1937, enabled him to do postdoctorate work at Cambridge University and at Harvard University. While in Cambridge he was taught by
G.E. Moore
George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...
and
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
.
Career
From 1938 Lazerowitz taught at
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
, marrying fellow philosopher
Alice Ambrose
Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz (November 25, 1906 – January 25, 2001) was an American philosopher, logician, and author.
Early life and education
Alice Loman Ambrose was born in Lexington, Illinois and orphaned when she was 13 years old. She ...
that same year. Except for a year where he was Fulbright Professor at Bedford College, London, he went on to teach at Smith for 35 years.
After he retired from teaching in 1973, Lazerowitz was named
professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of philosophy at Smith College.
He still continued to teach as visiting professor at Carleton College, Hampshire College and the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...
.
Publications
Lazerowitz co-wrote a number of books with Ambrose including a primer on logic which became a widely used textbook in the 1950s and was known as "Ambrose and Lazerowitz". He collaborated with his wife on a number of works: ''Fundamentals of Symbolic Logic'' (1948), ''Logic: The Theory of Formal Inference'' (1961), ''Philosophical Theories'' (1976) and ''Essays in the Unknown Wittgenstein'' (1984).
His chief contribution to philosophy was his development of the study of metaphilosophy. Morris claims to have created the term ‘metaphilosophy’ around 1940 and used it in print in 1942. He defined 'metaphilosophy' as an investigation of the nature of philosophical theories and their supporting arguments, with the aim of explaining their centuries-long irresolvability. (See Metaphilosophy
990 91 and The Language of Philosophy, chap. 1.) His most important books are ''The Structure of Metaphysics'' (1955) and ''Studies in Metaphilosophy'' (1964).
He also wrote ''Philosophy and Illusion'' (1968), ''The Language of Philosophy: Freud and Wittgenstein'' (1977), and ''Cassandra in Philosophy'' (1983).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazerowitz, Morris
1907 births
1987 deaths
20th-century American philosophers
American logicians
Harvard University alumni
Metaphysicians
Jewish philosophers
Writers from Omaha, Nebraska
Smith College faculty
University of Michigan alumni
University of Nebraska alumni
20th-century Polish Jews
Polish emigrants to the United States
20th-century Polish philosophers