Otis Hamilton Lee (28 September 1902,

Montevideo, Minnesota Montevideo is a city in Chippewa County, Minnesota, Chippewa County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,383 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chippewa County, Minnesota, Chippewa County. The town ...

– 17 September 1948, Vermont) was an American philosopher, noteworthy as a

Guggenheim Fellow 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 ...

. Lee attended Fargo College from 1920 to 1922 and then the

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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where he graduated with B.A. in 1924. From 1924 to 1927 he was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

, where he graduated with A.B. in 1926. From 1927 to 1929 he was an instructor in philosophy 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 1930 he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from

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 ...

, where he was an Austin Fellow from 1929 to 1930. At Harvard University he was an instructor and tutor from 1930 to 1933 and for the academic year 1934–1935. At Harvard he was also a reader (''i.e.'' a course assistant who grades papers) for

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

for the academic year 1931–1932, as well as a Harvard Milton Scholar for the academic year 1933–1934. Lee pursued postdoctoral study at the University of Kiel from 1933 to 1934 and at the University of Freiburg in the summer of 1934. For the academic year 1940–1941, he was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow for the writing of a book on the nature of philosophical inquiry. At Oxford in the 1920s he became familiar with the German philosophical tradition as interpreted by Oxford's Hegelians. At Harvard he was influenced by the pragmatism of

C. I. Lewis Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964), usually cited as C. I. Lewis, was an American academic philosopher. He is considered the progenitor of modern modal logic and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logic ...

and the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead. For the academic year 1933–1934 Lee went with his wife Dorothy to study neo-Hegelian philosophy with

Richard Kroner __NOTOC__ Richard Kroner (8 March 1884 in Breslau – 2 November 1974 in Mammern) was a German neo-Hegelian philosopher, known for his ''Von Kant bis Hegel'' (1921/4), a classic history of German idealism written from the neo-Hegelian point o ...

. From 1935 to 1938 Lee was an associate professor at Pomona College. From 1938 until his death in 1948, he was a professor of philosophy and department chair at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. A sudden, unexpected heart attack caused his death. He was an editor and contributor for the 1936 book ''Philosophical Essays for Alfred North Whitehead''; this is a collection of nine essays written for Whitehead by nine of his former students, who were (besides Lee):

F. S. C. Northrop Filmer Stuart Cuckow Northrop (November 27, 1893 in Janesville, Wisconsin – July 22, 1992 in Exeter, New Hampshire) was an American legal philosopher and influential comparative philosopher. After receiving a B.A. from Beloit College in 19 ...

Raphael Demos Raphael Demos (; el, Ραφαήλ Δήμου; January 23, 1892 – August 8, 1968) was a Greek-American philosopher. He was Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity, emeritus, at Harvard University and an authority ...

Scott Buchanan Scott Buchanan (1895 – 1968) was an American philosopher, educator, and foundation consultant. He is best known as the founder of the Great Books program at St. John's College, at Annapolis, Maryland.The same program is used at St. John's Colle ...

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". ...

, Henry Siggins Leonard (1905–1967), Paul Weiss, S. Kerby-Miller, and

Charles Hartshorne Charles Hartshorne (; June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics, but also contributed to ornithology. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and ...

. Otis Lee's articles were published in ''

The Philosophical Review ''The Philosophical Review'' is a quarterly journal of philosophy edited by the faculty of the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University and published by Duke University Press (since September 2006). Overview The journal publishes original ...

'', ''International Journal of Ethics'', ''Archive of Philosophy and Theory of Knowledge'', ''

The Journal of Philosophy ''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, es ...

'', and ''Philosophy of Science''. He was on the editorial board of ''

The Review of Metaphysics ''The Review of Metaphysics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy. It was established by Paul Weiss and the first issue was published in September 1947. The journal's primary sponsor is and has been The Catholic University of America ...

''. He married anthropologist Dorothy D. Lee (1905–1975). They had four children, Anna Maud, Mary H., Ronald and Sabra.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Otis Hamilton 1902 births 1948 deaths 20th-century American philosophers American philosophy academics University of Minnesota alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford American Rhodes Scholars Harvard University alumni Pomona College faculty Vassar College faculty People from Montevideo, Minnesota Philosophers from Minnesota