Alan Gewirth

Background

Gewirth, Alan was born on November 28, 1912 in Union City, New Jersey, United States. Son of Hyman and Rose (Lees) Gewirth.

Education

Bachelor with honors in Philosophy, Columbia, 1934. Doctor of Philosophy (Rockefeller Foundation fellow), Columbia, 1947. Postgraduate (Sage fellow in philosophy), Cornell University, 1937.

Career

Teaching, research assistant philosophy University Chicago, 1937-1941, faculty, 1947—2004, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service professor, 1975—2004. Visiting professor Harvard University, 1957, University Michigan, 1959-1960, Johns Hopkins University, 1966-1967, University California, Santa Barbara, 1985. Cooper Foundation lecturer Swarthmore College, 1961.

Niebuhr lecturer Elmhurst College, 1969. Distinguished guest lecturer Iowa Philosophical Society, 1969. Lindley lecturer University Kansas, 1972.

Visiting philosopher Indiana University, South Bend, 1972, Wheaton College, Illinois, 1985, Westminster College, 1986, Wabash College, 1988. Distinguished visiting lecturer University California Riverside, 1986. Guest lecturer History of Economics Society, 1986.

Bar-Hillel lecturer Tel Aviv University, Israel, 1987. Wade Memorial lecturer St. Louis University, 1987. Perspectives lecturer University Notre Dame, 1975.

Mellon Foundation lecturer Marquette University, 1975, Colby College, 1978. Marsilius of Padua lecturer University Padua, Italy, 1980. Hannah Arendt Memorial lecturer New School Social Research, New York City, 1981.

Social analysis lecturer University Rochester, 1987. Fabri lecturer University Tübingen, Federal Republic Germany, 1989. Invited speaker 18th World Congress of Philosophy, Brighton, England, 1988.

Principal speaker 12th Interam. Congress of Philosphy, Buenos Aires, 1989. Judge dissertation essay competition Philosophy Education Society, 1972.

Member various panels National Endowment of the Humanities.

Works

More photos

• book

  • MARSILIUS OF PADUA: The Defender of Peace - Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Political Philosophy (Vol. I).
  • Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of Peace. Vol. I: Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Political Philosophy; Vol. II: The Defensor Pacis. 2-vol. set (Complete)
  • MARSILIUS OF PADUA: THE DEFENDER OF PEACE: VOL. I - MARSILIUS OF PADUA AND MEDIEVAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
  • Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Applications
  • Human rights : essays on justification and applications.
  • Moral rationality (Lindley lecture)
  • Marsilius of Padua Defensor Pacis
  • [(Reason and Morality)] [Author: Alan Gewirth] published on (November, 1982)

• Other Work

  • Author: Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Political Philosophy, 1951, Moral Rationality, 1972, Reason and Morality, 1978, Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Applications, 1982. Monograph Ethics, 1974. Co-author: Social Justice, 1962, The Forward Movement of the Fourteenth Century, 1961.Editor: Political Philosophy, 1965. Translator: Marsilius of Padua: Defensor Pacis, 1956, 67, 79. Advisory board editors: Ethics, Nomos.Subject of books: Gewirth's Ethical Rationalism (E. Regis, Junior), 1984, The Dialectical Necessity of Morality: An Analysis and Defense of Alan Gewirths's Argument to the Principle of Generic Consistency, 1991.

Views

For an attempt to secure for ethical judgements the °hjective truth that he thought their authority required, Gewirth argued that it is self-contradictory for any agent to reject what he called the Principle of Generic Consistency—the principle foat one should always act with favourable consideration for the freedom and well-being of others as well as of oneself.

Many have held that Gewirth’s argument is an 'Uegitmate attempt to bridge the gap between foots and values.

Gewirth also produced a standard translation °f Defendor Pacts by Marsilius of Padua.

Membership

Served to captain Army of the United States, 1942-1946. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member American Philosophical Association (chairman program committee 1953-1954, 70-71, president 1973-1974, member committee lectures, publications and research 1972-1976), American Society Political and Legal Philosophy (president 1983-1984), American Civil Liberties Union, Phi Beta Kappa.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Kant.

Connections

Married Marcella Tilton, March 18, 1956. Children: James, Susan (by former marriage), Andrew Alan, Daniel Tilton, Letitia Rose.

Father:

Hyman Gewirth

Mother:

Rose (Lees) Gewirth

Spouse:

Marcella Tilton

child:

James Gewirth

child:

Susan Gewirth (by former marriage)

child:

Andrew Alan Gewirth

child:

Daniel Tilton Gewirth

child:

Letitia Rose Gewirth