Roderick Firth (January 30, 1917 – December 22, 1987) was an American philosopher. He was Professor of Philosophy at

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 ...

from 1953 until his death.

Education

Firth earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from

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 ...

in 1943. His thesis was entitled ''Sense-Data and the Principle of Reduction''.

Career

He taught at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

before joining the Harvard faculty in 1953. Firth is noted for his defense of the

ideal observer theory Ideal observer theory is the meta-ethical view which claims that ethical sentences express truth-apt propositions about the attitudes of a hypothetical ''ideal observer''. In other words, ideal observer theory states that ethical judgments should b ...

in ethics and for his exploration of

radical empiricism Radical empiricism is a philosophical doctrine put forth by William James. It asserts that experience includes both particulars and relations between those particulars, and that therefore both deserve a place in our explanations. In concrete terms: ...

.1964 ''Journal of Philosophy'' 61 (19):545-557.

References

Harvard University faculty Brown University alumni 1917 births 1987 deaths Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American philosophers {{US-philosopher-stub

Education

Career

See also

References