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Lewis White Beck

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Lewis White Beck
Born(1913-09-26)September 26, 1913
DiedJune 7, 1997(1997-06-07) (aged 83)
Rochester, New York
AwardsAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellowship
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellow
Rosenwald Fund Fellowship
EraWestern philosophy
RegionGerman idealism
Main interests
Immanuel Kant
Moral philosophy

Lewis White Beck (September 26, 1913 – June 7, 1997) was an American philosopher and scholar of German philosophy specializing in German idealism. Beck was Burbank Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at the University of Rochester and served as the Philosophy Department chair there from 1949 to 1966. He translated several of Immanuel Kant's works, such as the Critique of Practical Reason, and was the author of Studies in the Philosophy of Kant (1965).

Biography

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Born in Griffin, Georgia, Beck was the youngest of four children in a family raised by Erasmus W. Beck and Ann H. Beck. His siblings included: Evelyn H. Beck , Edwin H. Beck and Sarah A Beck. His father was employed as both an engineer and a sales representative.[1]

Beck received his bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University in 1934, his master's degree from Duke University in 1935, and his doctoral degree from Duke University in 1937. His dissertation was entitled: "Synopsis: A Study in the Theory of Knowledge.[1]

Academic career

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External images
image icon You may see Lewis White Beck lecturing at Emmory University in 1938
Here on usg.edu
image icon Lewis White Beck at the University of Rochester
Here on archive.org

Before moving to Rochester, Beck was an international student and a Rosenwald Fund Fellow at the University of Berlin (1937–38; an interview about his experiences there appeared in The Atlanta Constitution, September 18, 1938),[2] an instructor at Emory University (1938–41),[3] Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware (1941–48),[4] and associate professor at Lehigh University (1946–48), eventually becoming professor (1948–49).[5]

Beck joined the faculty at the University or Rochester in 1949 and served as Chairman of its Department of Philosophy from 1949 to 1966. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School (1952-1956) as well as the Dean of the Graduate School (1956–1957) where he helped to raise international recognition for the PhD. program in Philosophy.[6] During this time he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Philosophy (1957).[7] In 1970 he collaborated with the Kantian scholar Gottfried Martin at the University of Bonn to organize the first International Kant Congress to be hosted in the United States and helped to established an enduring close collaboration between Kantian scholars in both Germany and America.[8][9]

In 1962 he was appointed as the Burbank Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and subsequently Professor Emeritus in 1979.[1][5] In 1962 he became the first recipient of the University's Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.[6] He was subsequently elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963 and the American Council of Learned Societies in 1964.[10][5][11][12] From 1970 to 1975, Beck also served on the National Endowment for the Humanities Council.[13] During this time he also served as a member of the board of directors for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1970–1978).[13]

During the course of his long academic career, Beck also held appointments as a visiting lecturer at several leading academic research centers including: Columbia University (1950), George Washington University, the University of Minnesota (1953), the University of California at Berkeley (1973), Yale University (1974) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (1982–1983). In addition, he received honorary degrees from Hamilton College, Emory University and the University of Tubingen.[5][1]

In addition to his teaching activities, Beck also served on the editorial board of several leading philosophical research journals including: the Journal of the History of Ideas and Kantian-Studien. Over the years he also served on the editorial board of the journal The Monist which also featured his work.[14][15][16] In addition, in 1970 he served as editor of the Proceedings of the Third International Kant Congress.[17] In 1985 he also contributed to the formation of the North American Kantian Society.[5]

Over the years, Beck was praised by his students for his charm and wit. Even after his formal retirement in 1979 he continued to meet with informal gatherings of aspiring young scholars in an effort to share his unique insights into Kant's works until 1996.[5] He was often observed to joke that his prize for an award in teaching excellence was rejected as "nontaxable" by the Internal Revenue Service because it was more appropriately categorized as "unearned".[6]

Academic works

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Immanuel Kant

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Beck is most noted for his research into the collective writings of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Included among his publications is a translation of Kant's extensive "Critique of Pure Reason" in 1949.[5] He also achieved widespread national and international recognition within academic circles for his scholarship, commentary and encyclopedic knowledge of Kant's philosophical works.[5][17][18]

In the course of his exhaustive commentaries, Beck shared several noteworthy insights into Kant's philosophical thoughts. While revisiting Kant's distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" truths and his concept of the "synthetic a priori", Beck attempted to clarify Kant's reasoning by exploring whether synthetic judgements should be made analytic, as well as whether Kant incorrectly identified some "contingent judgements" as "necessary judgements". He further observed that Kant's utilization of the term "synthetic" appears to convey different meanings in Kant's writings on transcendental logic as compared to his writings on the theory of general logic. Beck observed further that this divergence in meaning accounts for the unfortunate confusion in the minds of many students who explore translations of Kant's works from the original German into English.[17][19]

Beck also asserted that Kant's Critique of Practical Reason has been largely neglected by modern readers and sometimes supplanted in the minds of many scholars by the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. He claimed that a complete understanding of Kant's moral philosophy is most easily attained by reviewing Kant's "second critique" which puts forth an analysis of the concepts of both freedom and practical reason. In his A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1961) Beck asserts that Kant's "second critique" serves to weave these divers strands into a unified pattern for his theory on moral authority in general.[17][20][21]

Secular philosophy

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In his Six Secular Philosophers (1966), Beck also endeavored to explore the general characteristics of a secular philosophy and whether such a philosophy can be formulated to accommodate religious beliefs and values. Beck observed that while an exact or precise conceptualization of a secular philosophy might be elusive, a secular philosophy is likely to require an appeal to an independence of thought. In Beck's view it should also incorporate certain aspects of religious thought as well. With this in mind, Beck identified several "families" of secular philosophers. In his first group Beck calls our attention to philosophers who placed limits on the scope, validity and content of religious belief by an appeal to scientific and philosophic endeavors. He identifies Baruch Spinoza, David Hume and Kant in this grouping. In his second grouping, Beck identified Frederich Nietzsche, William James and George Santayana, each of whom explored the relationship of religious values in general to other values in life. Beck asserted that Kant ultimately could not embrace Spinoza's embrace of substance or his appeal to monism. According to Beck, Kant agreed instead with Hume that a scientific interpretation of nature cannot serve by itself to confirm religious belief. According to Beck, Kant also parted ways with Hume, however, by insisting that a different rational basis for religious thought can be found in mankind's moral consciousness.[17][18][19]

Additional interests

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Beck's scholarly publications also reflect his interest in philosophical topics which are not prima facia directly related to the works of Immanuel Kant. In 1966 he published a detailed philosophical examination of the characteristics of mankind's conscious and unconscious motives entitled Conscious and Unconscious Motives.[22] In 1968, he also collaborated with his colleague Robert L. Holmes at the University of Rochester in the book Philosophic Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy.[23] Years later in 1971, he also presented his insights into the topic of searching for extraterrestrial life for the sixty-eighth annual Eastern Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in New York City in a paper which he entitled Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life.[24]

In the later work, Beck traces the evolution of philosophical speculation concerning the presence of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms starting with the ancient writings of Lucretius, Plutarch and Aristotle, to the contributions made by Copernicus and culminating in the modern age within the works Darwin, Immanuel Kant, William Whewell and Marx.[25] He argues that our ancestors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were plagued by a profound pessimism over the decline of the natural world due to mankind's sinfulness and consequently sought redemption by searching for the presence of "higher beings" within the universe.[26] Similarly, in modern times, mankind's despair and technological shock is due in part to his pollution of the natural world and in part due to repeated failures of moral belief.[27] He argues further that deeply seated religious, philosophical and existential beliefs are serving to perpetuate the comforting archetypal idea that mankind is not alone in the universe. Beck concludes on an optimistic note, however, by suggesting that while the quest for other or superior forms of life in the universe may not prove successful, it may yield beneficial consequences by assisting mankind in the actualization of better ways of life here on Earth.[28]

Honours

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In addition to receiving fellowships from the Rosenwald Fund in 1937,[29] the Guggenheim Foundation in 1957,[7] the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963,[12] and the American Council of Learned Societies in 1964,[11] Beck was the first recipient of the University Of Rochester's Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1962.[6]

In addition, Beck was the recipient of several honorary degrees from several leading scholarly institutions including:Hamilton College, Emory University and the university of Tubingen.[5][1] He was also an honorary member of the Kant Society in Germany.[30]

In 2001 Beck was honored by several prominent scholars and the philosopher Predrag Cicovaki with the publication of Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck. The leading scholar of German philosophy Walter Kaufmann also paid special tribute to Beck's scholarship in his work Goethe, Kant and Hegel in 1980.[18][19]

Death

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Beck retired in 1979 and died in 1997 at age 83 in Rochester, New York.[5] He was survived by his wife Caroline as well as his two sons Brandon and Hamilton along with two grandsons.[31]

Selected publications

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External videos
video icon You may read Lewis White Beck's:
Studies in the Philosophy of Kant (1965)
Early German Philosophy: Kant and His Predecessors (1969)
and additional publications about Kant
Here on Archive.org

During his long academic career, Lewis White Beck published several books and numerous scholarly articles which include the following works.[32]

Books

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  • Philosophic Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy (1952)[33]
  • A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1961)[34][35]
  • On History (1963)[36]
  • Studies in the Philosophy of Kant (1965)[37]
  • Six Secular Philosophers (1966)[38]
  • 18th-Century Philosophy (1966) Editor: Lewis White Beck[39]
  • Early German Philosophy: Kant and His Predecessors (1969)[40]
  • Kant's Theory of Knowledge Editor: Lewis White Beck (1974)[41]
  • The Actor and the Spectator (1975)[42][43]
  • Essays on Kant and Hume (1978)[44]
  • Mr. Boswell dines with Professor Kant (1979)[45]
  • Essays by Lewis White Beck: Five Decades as a Philosopher (1998) Editor: Predrag Cicovaki [46]

Translations

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  • Kant, Immanuel (1950). Lewis White Beck (ed.). Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science. New York: Bobbss Merrill Educational Publishing – via Internet Archive.
  • Kant, Immanuel (1956). Critique of Practical Reason. Translated by Lewis White Beck. New York: The Liberal Arts Press – via Internet Archive.
  • Kant, Immanuel (1997). The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and What is Enlightenment. Translated by Lewis White Beck (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc. – via Internet Archive.

Archived works

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  • The Lewis White Beck Papers collection was gifted to the University of Rochester for archival purposes by Professor Beck in 1960, 1965, 1969 and 1975. The manuscripts and notes contained within the collection are accessible to scholars and research students within the University of Rochester's Rare Books and Special Collections Library upon request.[47]
  • The Lewis White Beck manuscripts of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy Collection at the University of Delaware contains various drafts, galley proofs, page proofs and the published edition of Professor Beck's translations and editing of Immanuel Kant's work as completed during his tenure at Delaware University from 1943 to 1948 and is open both to researchers and scholars.[4]

Professional affiliations

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Lewis White Beck was both an active member and a member emeritus of the American Philosophical Association.[48] He served as President of the American Philosophical Association- Eastern Division in 1971 as well as the chairman of its board of officers (1974–1977). He also served as the president of the North East Society for 18th Century Studies in 1974.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Hull, Richard T. (2013). "Biography: Lewis White Beck". American Philosophical Association Centennial Series: Presidential Addresses of The American Philosophical Association 1981–1990. Philosophy Documentation Center. pp. 69–71. doi:10.5840/apapa2013217.
  2. ^ The Atlanta Constitution. September 18, 1938 p. 44 Lewis Beck on Atlanta Journal Constitution Archive at ajc.newspapers.com
  3. ^ The Atlanta Constitution. July 25, 1941 p. 25 Lewis White Beck on The Atlanta Journal Constitution Archive at ajc.newspapers.com
  4. ^ a b "Collection: Lewis White Beck manuscripts of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy". University of Delaware Library Special Collections Repository. September 26, 1913.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Meerbote, Ralf (1997). "Lewis White Beck (1913–1997)". Kantian Review. 1: 186–187. doi:10.1017/S1369415400000145. ISSN 1369-4154.
  6. ^ a b c d Tanzi, Vincent (September 29, 2022). "Leafing Through Lewis White Beck's Career and Mind". River Campus Libraries.
  7. ^ a b "Lewis W. Beck – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  8. ^ "Lewis White Beck in memoriam". Seebohm, Thomas M. Kant-Studien 88. Jahrg., S. 38 1997 Lewis White Beck Memoriam on Google
  9. ^ "Proceedings of the Third International Kant Congress" Beck, Lewis White.Philosophy and Phenomenological Research Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1973), pp. 429–431 Lewis White Beck North American Kant Society on Google
  10. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010:ChapterB" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  11. ^ a b "ACLS Fellowships Program 1964 Lewis White Beck Project: "A History of German Philosophy, from the Beginnings to Recent Times"". American Council Of Learned Societies. March 22, 2022.
  12. ^ a b "Lewis White Beck". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 10, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c "Philosopher, Scholar Lewis White Beck Dies". University of Rochester. June 12, 1997.
  14. ^ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. "Recent Publications" Vol 22, No. 3 (March 1962) pp. 443–447 "The Monist – editor Lewis White Beck" on jstor.org
  15. ^ The Monist publisher of works by Lewis White Beck on JSTOR.org
  16. ^ The Monist "Introduction and Bibliography" Lewis White Beck. Volume 53, issue 4, 1 October 1969 p. 523-531 Lewis White Beck on academic.oup.com
  17. ^ a b c d e Shook, John R., ed. (February 11, 2016). The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America: From 1600 to the Present. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 71–72. ISBN 978-1-4725-7054-3.
  18. ^ a b c Shook, John R.; Hull, Richard T., eds. (January 1, 2005). Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers. Bristol: A&C Black. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-1-84371-037-0.
  19. ^ a b c Cicovacki, Predrag, ed. (2001). Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck. Rochester, NY: University Rochester Press. p. 25-46. ISBN 978-1-58046-053-8.
  20. ^ Dictionary of Modern American Philosphers. Shook, John R. Ed. Thoemmes Continuum, Bristol, 2005 p. 166 ISBN 9781843710370 Lewis White Beck on Google Books
  21. ^ A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason Beck, Lewis White. The University of Chicago Press, London, 1960, p. v–viii (Foreword) on archive.org
  22. ^ Mind – A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy -"Conscious and Unconscious Motives". Beck, Lewis White. Oxford University Press, Vol LXXV No. 298, April, 1966 pp. 155–179 on JSTOR
  23. ^ Beck, Lewis White; Holmes, Robert L. (1968). Philosophic Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-662494-3.
  24. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association – "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life",. Beck, Lewis White. Vol 45 (1971–1972) pp. 5–21 on JSTOR
  25. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association – "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life",. Beck, Lewis White. Vol 45 (1971–1972) pp. 5–12 on JSTOR
  26. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association – "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life",. Beck, Lewis White. Vol 45 (1971–1972) pp. 18–19 on JSTOR
  27. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association – "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life",. Beck, Lewis White. Vol 45 (1971–1972) pp. 19–20 on JSTOR
  28. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association – "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life",. Beck, Lewis White. Vol 45 (1971–1972) pp. 18–20 on JSTOR
  29. ^ The Atlanta Constitution. September 18, 1938 p. 44 Lewis Beck on Atlanta Journal Constitution Archive at ajc.newspapers.com
  30. ^ "Lewis White Beck in memoriam". Seebohm, Thomas M. Kant-Studien 88. Jahrg., S. 38 1997 Lewis White Beck Memoriam on Google
  31. ^ "In Memoriam Lewis White Beck (1913–1997)" Meerbote, Ralph.Kantian Review Cambride University Press, Vol. 1, 1997 p. 186-187 on Cambridge.org
  32. ^ Publications by Lewis White Beck on worldcat.org
  33. ^ Philosophical inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy. Beck, Lewis White. Prentice Hall 1952 Lewis White Beck on Google Books
  34. ^ Beck, Lewis White (1963). A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason. Chicago London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04075-5.
  35. ^ A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason Beck, Lewis White. The University of Chicago Press, London, 1960, p. v–viii (Foreword) on archive.org
  36. ^ Kant, Immanuel (1963). Beck, Lewis White (ed.). On History. Indianapolis, IN: MacMillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-672-60387-7. OCLC 372089.
  37. ^ Studies in the Philosophy of Kant Beck, Lewis White. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1965 Lewsi White Beck on archive.org
  38. ^ Six Secular Philosophers Beck, Lewis White. Harper & Brothers, New York 1960 Lewis White Beck on Archive.org
  39. ^ Beck, Lewis White (1966). Eighteenth-Century Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-02-902100-6.
  40. ^ Beck, Lewis White (1969). Early German Philosophy: Kant and His Predecessors. ISBN 978-0-7837-1670-1.
  41. ^ Beck, L.W. (August 31, 1974). Kant's Theory of Knowledge. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 978-90-277-0529-7.
  42. ^ Beck, Lewis White (1975). The Actor and the Spectator. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01899-1.
  43. ^ The Actor and the Spectator. Beck, Lewis White. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1975 on philppaper.org
  44. ^ Beck, Lewis White (1998). Essays on Kant and Hume. ISBN 978-0-7837-2786-8.
  45. ^ Mr. Boswell Dines with Professor Kant Beck, Lewis White. Bosewell, James, Kant, Immanuel. Tragara Press, 1979 ISBN 9780902616493 on Google Books
  46. ^ Essays by Lewis White Beck: Five Decades as a Philosopher Beck, Lewis White. Editor: Predrag Cicovaki. University of Rochester Press, Rochester, New York, 1998 Lewsi White Beck on Archive.org
  47. ^ University of Rochester – Rare Books and Special Collections Library Identifier A.B39 Lewis White Beck Papers on archives.lib.rochester.edu
  48. ^ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association: Membership List Vol 70, No 2 (Nov. 1996) p. 278 Lewis White Beck on jstor.org
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