Philip P. Wiener
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Philip P. Wiener (July 8, 1905 – April 5, 1992) was an American philosopher who was a specialist on
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. ...
, Charles S. Pierce,
Leibnitz Leibnitz (Slovenian: ''Lipnica'') is a city in the Austrian state of Styria and on 1 Jan. 2017 had a population of 12,176. It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur and Sulm rivers. The town is the capital of the Leibni ...
, the history and philosophy of science, and the history of ideas. He co-founded the ''
Journal of the History of Ideas The ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering intellectual history and the history of ideas, including the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and social sciences, religion, an ...
''.Sidney Axinn
"Wiener, Philip Paul (1905-92)"
in: John R. Shook, ed., ''Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers'', Bristol: Thoemmes, 2005. Retrieved 17 July 2005.

''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Obituaries, 8 April 1992. Retrieved 10 September 1992.
"Philip P. Wiener", '' Asheville Citizen-Times'', 6 April 1992, p. 10.


Early life and education

Wiener was born Philip Paul Wiener in New York City on July 8, 1905. After graduating with a BS from City College of New York and an MA from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, he studied philosophy at the
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 ...
, receiving a PhD in 1931.


Academic career

In 1933, Wiener was appointed as a professor of philosophy at City College of New York and in 1968 he moved to
Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
where he taught philosophy until his retirement in 1972. Wiener was an authority on
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. ...
and on
Charles Sanders 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 ...
, being present at a 1946 meeting during which the
Charles S. Peirce Society The Charles S. Peirce Society (CSPS) is an American organization which purpose is to enhance "study of and communication about the work of Charles S. Peirce and its ongoing influence in the many fields of intellectual endeavor to which he contribu ...
was established. He was also greatly interested in the philosophy of
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of math ...
, in
Morris Raphael Cohen Morris Raphael Cohen ( be, Мо́рыс Рафаэ́ль Ко́эн; July 25, 1880 – January 28, 1947) was an American philosopher, lawyer, and legal scholar who united pragmatism with logical positivism and linguistic analysis. This union co ...
and in
Pierre Duhem Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (; 9 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who worked on thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. Duhem was also a historian of science, noted for his work on the Eu ...
, and devoted much attention to the
history and philosophy of science The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there ...
and to the developing discipline of the
history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual his ...
. In collaboration with
Arthur Oncken Lovejoy Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an American philosopher and intellectual historian, who founded the discipline known as the history of ideas with his book ''The Great Chain of Being'' (1936), on the topic ...
he co-founded the ''
Journal of the History of Ideas The ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering intellectual history and the history of ideas, including the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and social sciences, religion, an ...
'' in 1940 and edited that journal for many years until a few years before his retirement. The ''Journal'' appeared during a period when academic disciplines were "rigidly distinct" from each other and it published "papers that involved more than one field or that presented matters of interest to more than one field". The ''Journal'', which is still published, has promoted the "interdisciplinary" approach since its beginning, an uncommon focus in earlier decades that is now "commonplace". Wiener was the editor-in-chief of the multi-volume ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas'' (1972), whose 320 articles ranged from " abstraction" to "
zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. ...
". In its preface, Wiener argued that while "specialized departments of learning" were necessary, the historian of ideas had a contribution to make by "tracing the cultural roots and historical ramifications of the major and minor specialized concerns of the mind". He translated a number of works from French including Nicod's ''Foundations of Geometry and Induction'' and Duhem's ''The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory''.


Personal life

Wiener was married to Gertrude Schler Wierner (died 1984). In his final year Wiener lived in Asheville, North Carolina. He died on April 5, 1992, at the age of 86 in the Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. and was survived by his two children, Marjorie Wiener and Leonard Wiener.


Bibliography


Books

* ''Leibniz. Selections.'', Philip P. Wiener, ed., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951 (Modern Students Library). * ''Studies in the Philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce'', Frederic H. Young, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952. * ''Readings in Philosophy of Science: Introduction to the Foundations and Cultural Aspects of the Sciences'', Philip P. Wiener, ed., New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953. * ''Roots of Scientific Thought: A Cultural Perspective'', Philip P. Wiener and Aaron Nolan, eds., New York: Basic Books, 1957. * ''Values in a Universe of Chance: Selected Writings of Charles S. Peirce'', Philip P. Wiener, ed., Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1958. * ''Ideas in Cultural Perspective'', Philip P. Wiener and Aaron Noland, eds., New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1962. * ''Evolution and the Founders of Pragmatism'', Harper & Row, 1965.J.K.F., Review o
"Ideas and Men; EVOLUTION AND THE FOUNDERS OF PRAGMATISM. By Philip P. Wiener. Foreword by John Dewey. 288 pp. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. $5."
''
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'', October 30, 1949, Section BR, p. 44. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
* ''Charles S. Peirce: Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)'', Philip P. Wiener, ed., New York: Dover Publications, 1966. * ''Renaissance Essays'', Philip P. Wiener and Paul O. Kristeller, eds., New York: Harper & Row, 1968 (Harper Torchbooks). * ''Basic Problems of Philosophy'', Philip P. Wiener, Daniel J. Bronstein and Yervant Hovhannes Krikorian, eds, New York: Prentice-Hall College Division, 1972. *
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
', Philip P. Wiener et al., eds., New York: Scribner's, c. 1973-1974. 5 volumes. * ''Violence and Aggression in the History of Ideas'', Philip P. Wiener and John Fisher, eds., New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, . See also
Writings of Professor Philip P. Wiener


Articles and papers

* "Notes on Leibniz’s Conception of Logic and Its Historical Context", in: ''
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 ...
'', Vol. 48 (1939), pp. 567–86.
"On Methodology in the Philosophy of History"
in: ''
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, e ...
'', Vol. 38 (1941). pp. 309–24. * "Method in Russell’s Work on Leibniz", in: ''The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell'', Paul Schilpp, ed., Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1944, pp. 259–76. *
G. M. Beard and Freud on 'American Nervousness'
, in: ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 269–274 *
Some Problems and Methods in the History of Ideas
, in: ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 22, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1961), pp. 531–548 See also
List of further articles and papers
on
Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...
.


References


Further reading


"Festschrift for Philip P. Wiener"
in ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 33 (1972), pp. 355–520.


External links

*''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas'', edited by Philip P. Wiener, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74. online
Volume 1234

Wiener, Philip P. (Philip Paul) 1905-1992
on
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiener, Philip P. 1905 births 1992 deaths People from New York City American historians of philosophy Intellectual historians 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American philosophers Philosophers from New York (state) City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni University of Southern California alumni Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers