Wilbur Marshall Urban (March 27, 1873–October 15, 1952) was an American

philosopher of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, the ...

, influenced by

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. Aft ...

. He wrote also on

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

axiology Axiology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''axia'': "value, worth"; and , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia'': "study of") is the Philosophy, philosophical study of value (ethics), value. It includes questions about the nature and classification of values ...

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

and

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...

Biography

Urban was born at on March 27, 1873

Mount Joy, Pennsylvania Mount Joy is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,346 at the 2020 census, and an estimated 8,323 in 2021. Name and origin The name is often shortened to "Mt Joy", as in Mencken (1963).Mencken (1963) p. ...

, to the Rev. Abraham Linwood Urban and Emma Louisa (Trexler) Urban.

Philosophy

His ''Language and Reality'', besides its exposition of Cassirer's ideas, has been described as the work “that first introduced

Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

’s phenomenology to the English speaking world”. It began with the words “Language is the last and deepest problem for the philosophic mind.” He was Stone Professor of Philosophy at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, from 1920 to 1931, and President of the American Philosophical Association in 1925-6. He was then a professor at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, succeeded in 1941 by Cassirer. He was a critic of

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 ...

, and of

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologi ...

In literary criticism

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

, in ''The Well Wrought Urn'' (1947), gave extended attention to Urban's views on language and symbolism, as applied to poetry. Suzanne Langer, however, starting from a similar base in Cassirer's thought, had criticized what Urban had to say in detail on poetry, in ''Philosophy in a New Key'' (1942). These matters are discussed in Cleanth Brooks and William K. Wimsatt, ''Literary Criticism: A Short History'' (1957).pp. 701–2.

Works

* ''The Problem of a "Logic of the Emotions" and Affective Memory'' (1901) * ''Definition and Analysis of the Consciousness of Value'' (1907) * ''Valuation: Its Nature and Laws, Being an Introduction to the General Theory of Value'' (1909) * ''Ontological Problems of Value'' (1917) * ''The Intelligible World: Metaphysics and Value'' (1929) * ''The Philosophy of Language'' (1929) * ''The Church and Modern Thought: The Cure of Modern Souls'' (1931) * ''The Church and the Modern World: The New Erastianism'' (1935) * ''Language and Reality: The Philosophy of Language and the Principles of Symbolism'' (1939) * ''Fundamentals of Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy'' (1945) * ''Beyond Realism and Idealism (1949) * ''Humanity and Deity'' (1951)

Notes

External links