Morris Weitz (; July 24, 1916 – February 1, 1981) "was an American philosopher of aesthetics who focused primarily on ontology, interpretation, and literary criticism".
From 1972 until his death he was Richard Koret Professor of Philosophy at
Brandeis University.
Biography
Personal life
Morris Weitz was born on July 24, 1916, in Detroit, his parents having emigrated from Europe (and his father having worked as a painting contractor).
He was husband to
Margaret (née) Collins ("an author and renowned scholar of French women, French culture and the French Resistance") and the father of three children, Richard, David, and Catherine (the former being a director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute). Morris Weitz died on February 1, 1981, in hospital in
Roxbury Roxbury may refer to:
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* Roxbury, Prince Edward Island
;United States
* Roxbury, Connecticut
* Roxbury, Kansas
* Roxbury, Maine
* Roxbury, Boston, a municipality that was later integrated into the city of Bosto ...
after a long illness aged 64, having lived latterly in
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
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* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
, Massachusetts.
Tertiary education and academic career
Weitz obtained his BA in 1938 from
Wayne State University. While doing graduate work in French history at the
University of Chicago he met
Bertrand Russell, which directed Weitz's interests towards philosophy. He received his Masters and, in 1943, his PhD in philosophy from the
University of Michigan with a dissertation titled
The Method of Analysis in the Philosophy of Bertrand Russell'.
During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the
University of Washington (1944–45),
Vassar College (1945–48), and
Ohio State University (1954–69).
In 1969 Weitz moved to
Brandeis University where, in 1972, he was named Richard Koret Professor of Philosophy in 1972, a position he retained until his death. He was also a visiting professor at
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
,
Cornell, and
Harvard
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 higher le ...
. He was recognised with a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1959, and was also honored as a
Fulbright Senior Scholar
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
.
Philosophical thought, influence, and criticisms
Weitz spent a year in
Oxford which led to lifelong friendships with Oxford philosophers such as
Gilbert Ryle,
H.L.A. Hart, and
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...
and, in 1953, the publication in ''
The Philosophical Review'' of
Oxford Philosophy' (1953). In the same, according t
Aaron W. Meskinwriting in ''
The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers,"''Weitz argued that postwar Oxford philosophy was not unified by any general meta-philosophical position but rather by a commitment to investigating the logic of concepts". Meskin notes that this "was a significant publication in the United States as it served for many as an introduction to postwar Oxford philosophy".
Meskin suggests the work also "illuminates the course of Weitz’s career" - the "task of elucidating both ordinary and technical concepts" becoming central to his philosophical pursuits and his philosophical method becoming "one of conceptual analysis, so long as this pursuit is not understood to be predicated on the goal of providing necessary and sufficient conditions".
Weitz is perhaps best known for his "influential and frequently anthologized"
1956 pape
''The Role of Theory in Aesthetics''which was to win him a 1955 Matchette Prize
(an award now replaced by the
American Philosophical Association book and article prizes
). This essay explicitly modified the theory of art initially provided in his 1950 book ''Philosophy of the Arts''
which had been "
bject to devastating criticisms from
Margaret McDonald among others".
In ''The Role of Theory in Aesthetics'' Weitz "overturned his original claim.. that his empirical and organic theory could produce a closed or real definition of art" according t
Aili Bresnahanand it is "this revised version that many philosophers have considered the ''sine qua non'' in support of the position that theories of art should be 'open'".
Supporters of Weitz's later view "for similar but non-identical reasons" include
W.B. Gallie
Walter Bryce Gallie (5 October 1912 – 31 August 1998) was a Scottish social theorist, political theorist, and philosopher."Walter Bryce Gallie, M.A., Emeritus Fellow of Peterhouse and Emeritus Professor of Political Science, died on Monday, 31 A ...
, W. E. Kennick and Benjamin R. Tilghman and detractors include
M.H. Abrams, M.W. Beal, Lee Brown,
George Dickie, and
Maurice Mandelbaum
Maurice Mandelbaum (born December 9, 1908, in Chicago; died January 1, 1987, Hanover, New Hampshire) was an American philosopher and phenomenologist . He was professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University with stints at Dartmouth College and ...
.
Mandelbaum in his 1965 paper
Family Resemblances and Generalizations Concerning the Arts' refers to Weitz's paper and includes its author amongst those who, in support of the contention "that it is a mistake to attempt to discuss what art, or beauty, or the aesthetic, or a poem, ''essentially'' is" have made "explicit use of
Wittgenstein's doctrine of
family resemblances". Mandelbaum claims that though he has "placed this at the forefront of his discussion.. Professor Weitz
asmade no attempt to analyze, clarify, or defend the doctrine itself".
Weitz's 1956 paper has been, as Meskin notes, "one of the most influential works in contemporary philosophy of art, and... continues to generate debate and discussion".
In a 2021 monograph,
Jason Josephson Storm argued that most attempts to answer Weitz's critique of a singular definition of art have failed, including those based on
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
and
aesthetic experience
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
.
Storm critiques Weitz's appeal to "family resemblance" as ultimately circular, and instead suggests that Weitz's criticism points to broader issues surrounding the nature of
social and
natural kinds.
Works
''Philosophy of the Arts'', 1950* reprinted in P. Lamarque and S. H. Olsen (eds),
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition', (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 12–18.
''Philosophy in literature'' (1963)* ''
Hamlet and the philosophy of literary criticism'' (1964)
* editor o
"''Problems in aesthetics''"(1959,
21970)
See also
*
American philosophy
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevert ...
*
List of American philosophers
*
Classificatory disputes about art
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weitz, Morris
1916 births
1981 deaths
Philosophers of art
Ohio State University faculty
20th-century American philosophers
University of Michigan alumni