William Warren Bartley III (October 2, 1934 – February 5, 1990), known as W. W. Bartley III, was an
American philosopher
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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specializing in
20th century philosophy
Contemporary philosophy is the present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning at the early 20th century with the increasing professionalization of the discipline and the rise of analytic and continental philosophy.
The phrase "c ...
, language and logic, and the
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...
.
Early life and education
Born in
Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania
Wilkinsburg is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The borough has a population of 15,930 as of the 2010 census. Wilkinsburg is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The borough was named for John Wilkins Jr., a United States Army ...
, on October 2, 1934, Bartley was brought up in a Protestant home. He completed his secondary education in Pittsburgh and studied 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 high ...
between 1952 and 1956, graduating with a BA degree in philosophy.
[Mariano Artigas: ''The Ethical Nature of Karl Popper's Theory of Knowledge'' (1999)] While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was an editor at ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'' newspaper. He spent the winter semester of 1956 and the summer semester of 1957 at the
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...
and the
Episcopal Theological School
Episcopal may refer to:
*Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church
*Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese
* Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name
** Episcopal Church (United Stat ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
. In 1958, he completed his
MA degree in philosophy at Harvard. Bartley was training to become a Protestant minister, but rejected Christianity at that point.
He went on to study under Sir
Karl Popper at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
, where he completed his PhD in 1962. Parts of his dissertation, ''Limits of Rationality: A Critical Study of Some Logical Problems of Contemporary Pragmatism and Related Movements'', were subsequently published as ''The Retreat to Commitment'' in the same year.
Career
After his doctoral graduation, Bartley worked as a lecturer in logic in London. In the following years, he held positions at the
Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cro ...
and the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
. He began teaching at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
in 1963, and was appointed to his first full professorship there in 1969.
In 1973, he joined the
California State University, Hayward
California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 post ...
faculty as a professor of philosophy, where he received the distinction of "Outstanding Professor" of the entire
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
system in 1979. His last position there before his retirement was that of a senior research fellow at the
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...
.
[Gerard Radnitzky]
William W. Bartley III (1934–1990)
''Popper Letters'' 2:1 (1990)
Relationship with Sir Karl Popper
Bartley and Popper had a great admiration for each other, partly because of their common stand against
justificationism
Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper on the basis that, if a statement cannot be logically deduced (from what is known), it might nevertheless be possible to logically falsify it. Following Hume, Poppe ...
. However, at the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science at Bedford College, University of London, July 11–17, 1965, they came into conflict with each other. Bartley had presented a paper, "Theories of Demarcation Between Science and Metaphysics," in which he accused Popper of displaying a positivist attitude in his early works and proposed that Popper's demarcation criterion was not as important as Popper thought it was. Popper took this as a personal attack, and Bartley took his reply as indicating that Popper was ignoring his criticism.
Their friendship was not restored until 1974, after the publication of ''The Philosophy of Karl Popper'' (edited by Paul Schillpp).
Bartley changed the tone of his remarks about Popper's criterion of demarcation, making it less aggressive. However, despite the restored friendship, Bartley's view was never accepted by Popper, who criticised it even after Bartley's death.
Author and editor
Bartley published a biography of the philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...
, titled simply ''Wittgenstein'', in 1973. The book contained a relatively brief, 4–5 page treatment of Wittgenstein's homosexuality, relying mainly on reportage from the philosopher's friends and acquaintances. This matter caused enormous controversy in intellectual and philosophical circles; many perceived it as a posthumous "attack" on Wittgenstein.
Some foreign translations of the book, such as the first edition of the Spanish translation, omitted the "offending" material. In the second edition of the biography (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1985, pp. 159–97), Bartley answered the objections of critics, pointing out that Wittgenstein's periods of active homosexuality are verified by the philosopher's own private writings, including his coded diaries, and that extensive confirmation was also available from people who knew Wittgenstein in Vienna between the two World Wars, including ex-lovers. Bartley also considered, and rejected, the idea of a connection between the private life and the philosophy.
Bartley also wrote a biography of
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg; September 5, 1935) is an American author and lecturer known for founding est, which operated from 1971 to 1984. He has written, lectured, and taught on self-improvement.
In 1977 Erhard, with the s ...
, the founder of
est. Bartley was graduate of
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training (marketed as est, though often encountered as EST or Est) was an organization, founded by Werner Erhard in 1971, that offered a two-weekend (6-day, 60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The sem ...
and served on the advisory board of
Est, an educational company.
Bartley edited
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
's book ''Symbolic Logic'' (see
symbolic logic), including the second volume, which Carroll had never published.
Bartley extended Popperian epistemology in his book ''The Retreat to Commitment'',
in which he describes
pancritical rationalism
Pancritical rationalism (literally "criticism of all things", from pan-, "all", also known as PCR), also called comprehensively critical rationalism (CCR), is a development of critical rationalism and panrationalism originated by William Warren B ...
(PCR), a development of
critical rationalism
Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper on the basis that, if a statement cannot be logically deduced (from what is known), it might nevertheless be possible to logically falsify it. Following Hume, Poppe ...
and
panrationalism Panrationalism (or comprehensive rationalism) holds two premises true:
# A rationalist accepts any position that can be justified or established by appeal to the rational criteria or authorities.
# He accepts only those positions that can be so ju ...
. PCR attempts to work around the problem of ultimate commitment or infinite regress by decoupling criticism and justification.
A pancritical rationalist holds all positions open to criticism, including PCR, and never resorts to authority for justification.
Parts of Popper's ''Realism and the Aim of Science'', a book that Bartley edited, and the Addendum to the fourth edition of ''The Open Society and Its Enemies'' contain passages that are commonly interpreted as Popper's acceptance of Bartley's views.
Mariano Artigas
Mariano Artigas (1938–2006) was a Spanish physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He wrote ''The Mind of the Universe: Understanding Science and Religion'' and fifteen other books on science and religion.
He was a member of the European Ass ...
held that these were in fact written by Bartley himself.
Alan Ebenstein
Alan Oliver (Lanny) Ebenstein (born May 28, 1959) is an American political scientist, educator and author, known from his biographical works on Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.
Biography
Born in Princeton, New Jersey, to William Ebenstein ...
, a biographer of
F. A. Hayek, criticized Bartley for the extent of the changes he made as the editor of ''
The Fatal Conceit
''The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism'' is a book written by the economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek and edited by the philosopher William Warren Bartley. The book was first published in 1988 by the University of Chicago Pr ...
'', a book attributed to Hayek.
Bruce Caldwell suggests that the book in its published form may actually have been written by Bartley.
Death
Bartley died of
bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become ma ...
on February 5, 1990 at his home in Oakland, California, after having been diagnosed with the disease in the middle of the preceding year.
[anonymous]
Obituary: "William W. Bartley 3d, Research Fellow, 55"
''New York Times'' February 22, 1990 (corrected February 24, 1990).
At the time of his death, Bartley had just finished his last book, ''Unfathomed Knowledge, Unmeasured Wealth: On Universities and the Wealth of Nations''. Other works he was preparing at that time included writing a biography, and editing the collected works, of
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
. The latter was being completed after Bartley's death by his colleague and executor
Stephen Kresge.
Also unfinished was a biography of Popper. Both biographies were in an advanced stage at the time of Bartley's death.
Bibliography
* ''The Retreat to Commitment'', 1962
* ''Morality and Religion'', 1971
* ''Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic'', 1977
* ''Wittgenstein'', 1973, 1985
* ''Ludwig Wittgenstein e Karl Popper: maestri di scuola elementare'', 1976
* ''Come demarcare la scienza della metafisica'', 1983
* ''
Werner Erhard, The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est'', 1978
* ''
The Fatal Conceit
''The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism'' is a book written by the economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek and edited by the philosopher William Warren Bartley. The book was first published in 1988 by the University of Chicago Pr ...
: The Errors of Socialism'', 1988 (editor, with F. A. Hayek)
* ''Rehearsing a revolution – Karl Popper: A Life,'' 1989
* ''Unfathomed Knowledge, Unmeasured Wealth'', 1990
See also
*
American philosophy
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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References
External links
*, William Warren Bartley III (1934–1990)
clublet.com "Often referred to on Why simply as Bartley."
Bill Bartley (1934–1990)
*
ttp://www.bartleyinstitute.org/ The Bartley Institute(by Stephen Kresge, Bartley's executor)
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartley, William Warren
1934 births
1990 deaths
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Academics of the Warburg Institute
University of California, San Diego faculty
University of Pittsburgh faculty
California State University, East Bay faculty
20th-century American philosophers
Critical rationalists
Deaths from bladder cancer
Philosophers from Pennsylvania
Philosophers from California
People from Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania
Deaths from cancer in California
Member of the Mont Pelerin Society