Nicholas St. John Green (March 30, 1830 – September 8, 1876) was an 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

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, one of the members of

The Metaphysical Club The Metaphysical Club was a name attributed by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, in an unpublished paper over thirty years after its foundation, to a conversational philosophical club that Peirce, the future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wende ...

. Green is known for his contributions in the field of law as well as his involvement in the formation of

pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

. He has been named as the “grandfather of pragmatism” by

Charles Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

.Shook, John R., ''Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, p. 973

Early life

Nicholas St. John Green, born March 30, 1830 in Dover,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

was a son of a Unitarian minister, James D. Green. Green earned the title of Bachelor of Arts on the

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 higher le ...

in 1851. After earning his law degree in 1861 he was a paymaster during the course of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Career

After the war Nicholas St. John Green published some of his articles in American Law Review, which allowed him to become a lecturer at the Harvard University in 1870. Three years later he was given a position of professor of law at the

University of Boston Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, which he accepted. While in Boston, he was also serving as the Acting Dean at the university. Green's notable work includes the notion of multiple causes for every event, an idea which stood in opposition to the then widely accepted notion of single chain of causation.

Death

Nicholas St. John Green died on September 8, 1876 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Selected works

Books

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Details.
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Journal articles

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Nicholas St. John 1830 births 1876 deaths