F.C.S. Schiller

Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller
Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller
Born	16 August 1864 Ottensen near Altona, Holstein, German Confederation
Died	6 August 1937 (1937-08-07) (aged 72) Los Angeles
Education	Rugby School
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Era	19th/20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	British Pragmatism
Institutions	Corpus Christi, Oxford
Main interests	Pragmatism, logic, Ordinary language philosophy, epistemology, eugenics, meaning, personalism
Notable ideas	Criticism of formal logic, justification of axioms as hypotheses (a form of pragmatism), intelligent design, eugenics
Influences William James, Protagoras
Influenced William James

Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller (16 August 1864 – 6 August 1937), usually cited as F. C. S. Schiller, was a German-British philosopher. Born in Altona, Holstein (at that time member of the German Confederation, but under Danish administration), Schiller studied at the University of Oxford, later was a professor there, after being invited back after a brief time at Cornell University. Later in his life he taught at the University of Southern California. In his lifetime he was well known as a philosopher; after his death his work was largely forgotten.

Schiller's philosophy was very similar to and often aligned with the pragmatism of William James, although Schiller referred to it as "humanism". He argued vigorously against both logical positivism and associated philosophers (for example, Bertrand Russell) as well as absolute idealism (such as F. H. Bradley).

Schiller was an early supporter of evolution and a founding member of the English Eugenics Society.

Born in 1864, one of three brothers and the son of Ferdinand Schiller (a Calcutta merchant), Schiller's family home was in Switzerland. Schiller grew up in Rugby. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, and graduated in the first class of Literae Humaniores, winning later the Taylorian scholarship for German in 1887. Schiller's first book, Riddles of the Sphinx (1891), was an immediate success despite his use of a pseudonym because of his fears concerning how the book would be received. Between the years 1893 and 1897 he was an instructor in philosophy at Cornell University. In 1897 he returned to Oxford and became fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi for more than thirty years. Schiller was president of the Aristotelian Society in 1921, and was for many years treasurer of the Mind Association. In 1926 he was elected a fellow of the British Academy. In 1929 he was appointed visiting professor in the University of Southern California, and spent half of each year in the United States and half in England. Schiller died in Los Angeles either 6, 7 or 9 August 1937 after a long and lingering illness.