Background
SCHEFFLER, Israel was born on November 25, 1923 in New York, United States. Son of Leon Scheffler and Ethel Griinberg Scheffler.
( First published in 1963, this title considers the philo...)
First published in 1963, this title considers the philosophical problems encountered when attempting to provide a clear and general explanation of scientific principles, and the basic confrontation between such principles and experience. Beginning with a detailed introduction that considers various approaches to the philosophy and theory of science, Israel Scheffler then divides his study into three key sections – Explanation, Significance and Confirmation – that explore how these complex issues involved have been dealt with in contemporary research. This title, by one of America’s leading philosophers, will provide a valuable analysis of the theory and problems surrounding the Philosophy of Science.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415739624/?tag=2022091-20
(The Harvard professor presents "an introduction to episte...)
The Harvard professor presents "an introduction to epistemology in educationsl perspective and wishes to engage the reader in reflection on what properly can be considered knowledge as related to concepts of teaching, learning truth, evidence, belief, and skill.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226736695/?tag=2022091-20
( “ . . . a standard source for anyone wanting to immerse...)
“ . . . a standard source for anyone wanting to immerse himself in the topic of scientific change, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Hanson and Polanyi, all are examined here in a manner which is at once sympathetic and exacting.” —Roger C. Buck, Indiana University
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915145308/?tag=2022091-20
('Exhibits to the highest degree that commitment to ration...)
'Exhibits to the highest degree that commitment to rationality that Scheffler is so at pains to argue on behalf of. No viewpoint is misrepresented: there is meticulous concern to state the issues' - "Philosophical Books".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672612534/?tag=2022091-20
( First published in 1974, this book is a critical introd...)
First published in 1974, this book is a critical introduction to the work of four quintessential pragmatist philosophers: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, George Herbert Mead and John Dewey. Alongside providing a general historical and biographical account of the pragmatist movement, the work offers an in depth critical response to the philosophical doctrines of the four main thinkers of the pragmatist movement, with reference to the theories of meaning, knowledge and conduct which have come to define pragmatism.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415681790/?tag=2022091-20
( First published in 1991, In Praise of Cognitive Emotion...)
First published in 1991, In Praise of Cognitive Emotions comprises fourteen of Scheffler's most recent essays - all of which challenge contemporary notions of education and rationality. While defending the ideal of rationality, he insists that rationality not be identified with a mental faculty or a mechanism of inference but taken rather as the capactity to grasp principles and purposes and to evaluate them in the light of relevant reasons. Examining a broad range of issues - from computers in school to math education, from metaphor to morality - these essays are unified by Scheffler's conviction of the primacy of critical thought in education. Scheffler is especially concerned to promote a broad interpretation of rationality to counteract the narrowing of vision accompanying the technological revolution now sweeping education. Addressing three specific areas of curriculum, the work offers a critique of computer applications to education, develops a notion of strategic rationality in understanding mathematical reasoning, and, contrary to prevalent notions of moral education, connects reason with care, thus emphasizing the intimate connection between emotion and reason and challenging the dominant perception of the two as oppositional.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415582717/?tag=2022091-20
(Having spent forty years teaching education and philosoph...)
Having spent forty years teaching education and philosophy at Harvard, and publishing widely on these topics during this period, Israel Scheffler has now written a more personal book, looking at education through the prism of his own early experience, primarily of religious learning. The book consists mainly of portraits of his early teachers, most of whom belonged to a transitional generation of immigrant Hebrew scholars -- unsung heroes of Jewish education on the American scene. Through the medium of such portraits of teaching personalities and styles, as well as firsthand descriptions of various educational settings in the New York City of the 30s and 40s, he comments on aspects of immigrant life, the tensions between religious and secular worlds, the psychology of learning and teaching, the relations between universalism and particularism, the contrasts between intensive education and instrumental schooling, and related themes. These themes, although exemplified in the details of his own experience, are of quite general significance. The book will be of special interest for those concerned with Jewish life, with religious education, with the immigrant experience and with the recent American past.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0792332369/?tag=2022091-20
(Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge explicates and...)
Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge explicates and builds upon a half century of philosophical work by the noted philosopher Israel Scheffler. Propounds a new doctrine of plurealism which maintains the existence of multiple real worlds Offers a defense of absolute truth, which denies certainty and eschews absolutism, and defends systematic relativity, objectivity, and fallibilism Emphasizes a wide range of pragmatic interests: epistemology and scientific development, cognition and emotion, science and ethics, ritual and culture, and art and science
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1405191708/?tag=2022091-20
(This book examines the relations among work, education an...)
This book examines the relations among work, education and leadership in philosophical and practical perspective. Among the topics included are the concepts of education and training, the nature of vocational education, the relations of art and utility in schooling, and the roles of leadership in education and work. This book draws together influences from the American Pragmatist, John Dewey, and the British Idealist R. G. Collingwood.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820423238/?tag=2022091-20
(In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffle...)
In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521052300/?tag=2022091-20
(In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffle...)
In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521052300/?tag=2022091-20
SCHEFFLER, Israel was born on November 25, 1923 in New York, United States. Son of Leon Scheffler and Ethel Griinberg Scheffler.
Bachelor, Brooklyn College, 1945. Master of Arts, Brooklyn College, 1948. M.H.L., Jewish Theological Seminary, 1949.
Doctor of Philosophy (Ford fellow 1951), University Pennsylvania, 1952. A.M. (honorary), Harvard University, 1959. Doctor of Hebrew Literature (honorary), Jewish Theological Seminary, 1993.
Member faculty Harvard University, 1952-1992, professor education, 1961-1962, professor education and philosophy, 1962-1964, Victor S. Thomas professor education and philosophy, 1964-1992, professor emeritus, since 1992, honorary research fellow in cognitive studies, 1965-1966, co-director Philosophy Education Research Center, 1983-1998, director Philosophy Education Research Center, 1998—2003. Scholar-in-residence Mandel Center, Brandeis University, 2003—2009, emeritus, since 2010. Fellow Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, 1972-1973.
(Having spent forty years teaching education and philosoph...)
(The Harvard professor presents "an introduction to episte...)
( First published in 1963, this title considers the philo...)
( First published in 1974, this book is a critical introd...)
( First published in 1991, In Praise of Cognitive Emotion...)
(Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge explicates and...)
(In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffle...)
(In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffle...)
('Exhibits to the highest degree that commitment to ration...)
(This book examines the relations among work, education an...)
(Book by Scheffler, Israel)
( “ . . . a standard source for anyone wanting to immerse...)
Author: The Language of Education, 1960, The Anatomy of Inquiry, 1963, Conditions of Knowledge, 1965, Science and Subjectivity, 1967, Reason and Teaching, 1973, Four Pragmatists, 1974, Beyond the Letter, 1979, Of Human Potential, 1985, Inquiries, 1986, In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions, 1991, Teachers of My Youth, 1995, Symbolic Worlds, 1997, Gallery of Scholars, 2004, Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge, 2009. Co-author: Work, Education and Leadership, 1995. Editor: Philosophy and Education, 1958, 66.Co-editor: Logic and Art, 1972, Visions of Jewish Education, 2003. Contributor articles to professional journals.
Scheffler associates himself with the pragmatist tradition of seeking to overcome ‘inherited dualisms of knower and known, mind and body, fact and value, theory and practice, ends and means’. Like the classical pragmatists his interests have been broad, particularly in the philosophy of science and education, but including also ethics, epistemology and language, as well as ritual and social policy.
A concern to defend rationality and objectivity against their modem critics is a recurrent feature of his writings. Scheffler’s defence ot objectivity involves him in rejecting the ‘fixed foundation' strategy commonly accepted by the positivists and other apologists for science.
He seeks to hold the middle ground between such an indefensible objectivism and the subjectivism to which its critics have felt driven by offering a more plausible account of objectivity. In his Science and Subjectivity (1967). for instance, he argues that observation statements, though neither guaranteed nor incorrigible, provide an adequate basis for testing theories when they are taken together with the requirement of coherence. It has been claimed that Scheffler’s widely discussed and influential defence of rationality in education ‘has.. offered great intellectual and moral support to those who have tried to defend teachers and children from the onslaughts of the educational teleologists in the 1960s, the behaviourists in the 1970s and the reform report writers in the 1980s’.
But he is also known for his defences of objectivity in the philosophy of science against the scepticism and relativism of a variety of authors, particularly Kuhn.
Member American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Association, Philosophy Education Society, National Academy Education (charter), Philosophy of Science Association (press 1973-1975), Charles S. Peirce Society (president 1998).
Philosophy of education. Epistemology; philosophy of science.
Influences include Hempel and Quine.
Married Rosalind Zuckerbrod, June 26, 1949. Children: Samuel, Laurie.