Marvin Farber

Background

Marvin Farber was born on December 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, United States. He was a son of Simon and Matilda (Goldstein) Farber. Farber also was the elder brother of Sidney Farber.

Education

Marvin Farber studied at Harvard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1922. In 1925 he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Farber also attended German universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Freiburg.

Career

Marvin Farber started his career as an instructor in Philosophy at Ohio State University in 1925. He left this post in 1926 and one year later he took up the same post at the University at Buffalo. Farber became an assistant professor, professor, department chairman, acting dean of the graduate school, distinguished professor and, in 1964, distinguished service professor. He worked as a professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1974.

Marvin Farber published his first book Phenomenology as a Method and as a Philosophical Discipline in 1928. Later he wrote such books as The Aims of Phenomenology: The Motives, Methods, and Impact of Husserl's Thought, The Search for an Alternative and Foundation of Phenomenology. In 1940, he founded the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research and was its editor until 1980.

Achievements

• Marvin Farber was an American philosopher, educator and writer who was famous for his books about subjectivism and phenomenology. His most famous books are Naturalism and Subjectivism and Phenomenology and Existence.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Foundation of Phenomenology: Edmund Husserl and the Quest for a Rigorous Science of Philosophy

    (In this widely hailed and long out of print classic of tw...)

    2006
  • The Search for an Alternative: Philosophical Perspectives of Subjectivism and Marxism

    (This is the final work of one of the most influential Ame...)

    1984
  • Naturalism and Subjectivism 1959

Views

Marvin Farber was the principal figure in the establishment of phenomenology in the USA. In 1939 he established The International Phenomenological Society at Buffalo and, in 1940, edited Philosophical Essays in Memory of Edmund Husserl and founded the Society’s journal.

Though Farber was a follower of Husserl and expositor of contemporary German and French thought, he criticized the anti-scientific attitude of Husserl, Max Scheler, and others, as well as the anti-rationalist tendencies in other contemporary European thinkers such as Heidegger. His views tended toward naturalism and pragmatism. Farber struggled against the right-wing and anti-phenomenological bias of American institutions.

Membership

Marvin Farber was a member of philosophy societies around the world, such as the Institut Philosophe, International Phenomenological Society, American Philosophical Association, Symbolic Logic Association, and American Association of University Professors.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Edmund Husserl

Connections

Marvin Farber married Lorraine Farber. The marriage produced three children.

Father:

Simon Farber

Mother:

Matilda Goldstein

child:

Lawrence Farber

child:

Roger Farber

child:

Carol Farber

Brother:

Sidney Farber

Wife:

Lorraine Farber