Clarence Irving Lewis
| Clarence Irving Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 12, 1883 Stoneham, Massachusetts |
| Died |
February 3, 1964 (aged 80) Menlo Park, California |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School |
Pragmatism Analytic |
|
Main interests
|
Epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics |
|
Notable ideas
|
Conceptual pragmatism, modal logic, qualia |
|
Influences
|
|
Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964), usually cited as C. I. Lewis, was an American academic philosopher and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logician, he later branched into epistemology, and during the last 20 years of his life, he wrote much on ethics. The New York Times memorialized him as "a leading authority on symbolic logic and on the philosophic concepts of knowledge and value."
Lewis was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts. His father was a skilled worker in a shoe factory, and Lewis grew up in relatively humble circumstances. He discovered philosophy at age 13, when reading about the Greek pre-Socratics, Anaxagoras and Heraclitus in particular. The first work of philosophy Lewis recalled studying was a short history of Greek philosophy by Marshall.Immanuel Kant proved a major lifelong influence on Lewis's thinking. In his article "Logic and Pragmatism", Lewis wrote: "Nothing comparable in importance happened [in my life] until I became acquainted with Kant... Kant compelled me. He had, so I felt, followed scepticism to its inevitable last stage, and laid the foundations where they could not be disturbed."
In 1902, he entered Harvard. Since his parents were not able to help him financially, he had to work as a waiter to earn his tuition. In 1905, Harvard College awarded Lewis the Bachelor of Arts cum laude after a mere three years of study, during which time he supported himself with part-time jobs. He then taught English for one year in a high school in Quincy, Massachusetts, then two years at the University of Colorado. In 1906, he married Mable Maxwell Graves. In 1908, Lewis returned to Harvard and began a Ph.D. in philosophy, which he completed in a mere two years. He then taught philosophy at the University of California, 1911–20, after which he returned again to Harvard, where he taught until his 1953 retirement, eventually filling the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy. In 1929, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1933, he presided over the American Philosophical Association. For the academic year 1959–60, he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University.
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