Background
Eaton, Ralph Monroe was born on June 14, 1892 in Stockton. California. rf: 13 April 1932, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
Eaton, Ralph Monroe was born on June 14, 1892 in Stockton. California. rf: 13 April 1932, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
University of California, BA in Literature, 1914. Harvard University, Manuscripts and Archives 1915, PhD 1917.
Assistant in Philosophy, Harvard, 1915-1916. Instructor in Literary Composition, University of California, Summer 1916. USAEF. 1917-1919; Instructor in Philosophy, Harvard, 1919-1926, Assistant Professor, 1926-1932, Department Chairman, 1926-1930.
The range of Eaton's interests is indicated by the titles of his published works. His major work, Symbolism and Truth (1925), is about the role of symbols in knowledge and attempts to present a ‘positive or descriptive theory of knowledge’; the analysis is organized around the theme of symbols since Eaton held that ‘knowledge is inseparable from its expression'. Eaton developed a theory of logical form, and also theories of negation and contradiction—consequently also of ‘negative facts’—of truth and falsity, of formal deduction and of belief, and a critique of scepticism. His aim was to provide an account of knowledge independent so far as possible from metaphysics and psychology. However, ‘a theory of knowledge must come at last to metaphysics’, so there is also a discussion of the metaphysics of knowledge. The conclusion reached is that ‘reality is logical in form’, and so, therefore, is truth. The book was reviewed favourably and at length by H. T. Costello D. W. Prall and L. Susan Stebbing. None the less, it seems not to have had any extensive influence or a wide readership, though it is often recommended favourably by connoisseurs. Eaton’s Genera! Logic (1931) attempted to cover the whole subject, as it existed at that time, and to show ‘the continuity of the classical Aristotelian logic with contemporary mathematical logic’, of which this is one of the earliest elementary presentations. It makes use of some of the analyses provided by Symbolism and Truth, and had for some time wide use as a textbook. It was reviewed very favourably in The Journal of Philosophy (1932) by J. W. Mauzey, who judged it ‘for the most part, truly admirable. As a text it provides probably the only really "general" logic available'. I n ‘What istheproblemof knowledge?’ (1923), Eaton said that ‘the positive theory of knowledge.. does not preclude a metaphysics of knowledge and does not exhaust psychology or logic; nor do psychology, logic, and metaphysics exhaust the theory of knowledge. But the theory of knowledge as it often comes to us, confusedly mingled with metaphysics, bears the same relation to the positive analysis of knowledge as alchemy to chemistry’. Eaton attempted to show this in detail in Symbolism and Truth, and his tragically early death deprived philosophy of the opportunity to learn how this gifted and original mind would have developed further. In ‘The value of theories’ (1921), Eaton observed that ‘paradoxical as it may seem, it is only true propositions which demand explanations’, and went on to explain the important role played by deductive systems in explanation. His doctoral dissertation was on induction, and there are interesting suggestions in his writings of how he might have gone on to develop a theory of induction if he had survived to be able to do so. Thus, ‘If there is any principle of induction it is this: free the imagination to build a deductive system which will yield the truths we know by experience. This is not a postulate of proof, but a counsel of action’. Eaton’s talents were in some ways analogous to those of F. P. Ramsey in England and Jean Nicod in France. All three worked our their talents in different ways and all three died young and for different reasons. Like theirs, his premature death was a tragic loss to philosophy.
Theory of knowi- £'dge. Logic; metaphysics; philosophy of language. Philosophy of science.
Personal influences include Royce, R. B. Perry, R. F. Alfred Hoerne, H. M. Shcffer, Raphael Demos and Whitehead; literary influences include Whitehead and Russell, Broad, Husserl, Peirce and M. R. Cohen.