William Alston
| William Alston | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 29, 1921 Shreveport, Louisiana |
| Died | September 13, 2009 (aged 87) Jamesville, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
William Payne Alston (November 29, 1921 – September 13, 2009) was an American philosopher. He made influential contributions to the philosophy of language, epistemology, and Christian philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and taught at the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, University of Illinois, and Syracuse University.
Alston was born to Eunice Schoolfield and William Alston on November 29, 1921, in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from high school when he was 15 and went on to Centenary College of Louisiana, graduating in 1942 with a Bachelor of Music in piano. During World War II, he played clarinet and bass drum in a military band in California. During this time, he became interested in philosophy, sparked by W. Somerset Maugham's book The Razor's Edge. After this, he engrossed himself in works by well-known philosophers such as Jacques Maritain, Mortimer J. Adler, Francis Bacon, Plato, René Descartes, and John Locke. After being discharged, he entered a graduate program for philosophy at the University of Chicago, even though he had never formally taken a class on the subject. While he was there, he learned more about philosophy from Richard McKeon and Charles Hartshorne, and he received his PhD in 1951.
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