Gareth Blanc Matthews

Background

Gareth Matthews was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 8, 1929. He grew up near Memphis, Tennessee. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts at Franklin College (Indiana), where his father was a professor

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Franklin College, 1951; Rotary Foundation fellow, Free U. Berlin, 1952-1953; A.M., Harvard University, 1952; Doctor of Philosophy (Kent fellow), Harvard University, 1961; Doctor of Hebrew Literature, Franklin College, 1984.

Career

Matthews moved with his family to Franklin, Indiana, in 1945. He was valedictorian of the Class of 1947, at Franklin High School. Matthews began his graduate work at Harvard University, where he earned an Master of Arts in 1952.

He spent a year as a Rotary Fellow at the Free University of Berlin.

Matthews served as an Intelligence officer in the United States Navy, during the Cold War. He was assigned to the Naval Security Group, and the National Security Agency.

He later served in the reserves, and retired as a Lieutenant. His teaching appointments have been at the University of Virginia (1960-1961), the University of Minnesota (1961-1969), and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1969–2005).

Matthews first established himself with a series of important papers on Aristotle.

He also wrote a number of scholarly articles on Saint Augustine. His later works on the philosophy of children have been translated into a dozen languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian, as well as various European languages. He has directed reading groups for graduate students on Wittgenstein"s Philosophical Investigations and Heidegger"s Being and Time.

Matthews was a visiting professor at Amherst College, Brown University, Mountain.

Holyoke College, Smith College, and the Harvard Summer School. He was twice awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

Matthews lectured regularly in the United States and abroad and has conducted philosophy discussions with elementary-school children in Austria, Australia, China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Norway, and Scotland, as well as in various schools in the United States.

Matthews died of colon cancer on April 17, 2011, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Achievements

• Gareth Blanc Matthews has been listed as a noteworthy philosophy educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Philosophy of Childhood

    ( So many questions, such an imagination, endless specul...)

  • Philosophy and the Young Child (Harvard Paperbacks)

    ( Philosophy and the Young Child presents striking eviden...)

  • Dialogues with Children

    (Every week for a year, a professional philosopher and eig...)

  • Socratic Perplexity: And the Nature of Philosophy

    (Gareth Matthews suggests that we can better understand th...)

  • By Gareth Matthews - The Philosophy of Childhood (1996-10-16) Paperback

    (Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)

  • Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of Philosophy by Gareth B. Matthews (1999-08-26)

    (Brand New. In Stock. Will be shipped from US. Excellent C...)

  • Philosophy and the Young Child (Harvard Paperbacks) by Gareth Matthews (1982-04-15)
  • Dialogues with Children by Gareth Matthews (1992-12-01)
  • Socratic Perplexity: And the Nature of Philosophy by Gareth B. Matthews (2004-01-01)
  • Philosophy and the Young Child (Harvard Paperbacks) by Matthews, Gareth (1982) Paperback

Views

Matthews regularly taught undergraduate and graduate courses at UMass Amherst on ancient philosophy, medieval philosophy, existentialism, applied ethics, and various topics in metaphysics.

Membership

He has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and directed four summer seminars sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Connections

Married Mary Howorth, August 16, 1958. Children: Sarah Ruth, Rebecca Mary, John Peter.

Father:

Louis Brown Matthews

Mother:

Reka (Blanc) Matthews

Spouse:

Mary Howorth

child:

Sarah Ruth Matthews

child:

Rebecca Mary Matthews

child:

John Peter Matthews