Background
Sidney Hook was born on December 20, 1902, to Issac and Jennie Hook.
(Sidney Hook, one of America's leading social philosophers...)
Sidney Hook, one of America's leading social philosophers, was a dedicated student and friend of John Dewey, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. In this timeless volume, first published in 1939, Hook discusses the leading philosophical ideas of his mentor to highlight Dewey's central themes, their implications, and the relevance of his vision to the problems of American culture. Included in this intellectual biography are Dewey's thoughts on philosophy and culture; truth; logic and action; body, mind, and behavior; standards, ends, and means; the good society; education; art; human nature; and democracy.
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(Considered by some the most controversial American philos...)
Considered by some the most controversial American philosopher of contemporary times, SIDNEY HOOK (1902-1989) was infamous for the wild swing in his political thought over the course of his career, starting out as a young Marxist before the Great Depression and ending up a vehement anti-Communist in his later years. Hook's conception of history and the individual's impact upon it is the subject of this intriguing work, first published in 1943. Subtitled A Study in Limitation and Possibility, it examines the concept of the "hero" as it relates to leadership in the modern world, the hero as a child of crisis, how the character of rulers affects society, how history swings on the contingent and the unforeseen, and much more. With sections on the Russian revolution and the influence of the hero on democracy, this unexpectedly entertaining book is an enthralling look at the theories that shaped Hook's thought and guided his changes in political alliance.
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(Sidney Hook is arguably America's most controversial inte...)
Sidney Hook is arguably America's most controversial intellectual. After beginning his career as this nation's foremost Marxist scholar, he became in the late 1930s the leading anticommunist intellectual and defender of freedom against all forms of totalitarianism. This volume collects twenty-five of Hook's most incisive essays in political philosophy. Clustered into five main sections, the essays discuss pragmatism and naturalism, Marx and Marxism, Democratic theory and practice, and the defense of a free society. In an insightful introduction, editors Talisse and Tempio argue that underlying the wide range of subjects covered by Hook was his unwavering commitment to the "method of intelligence," which contends that any proposal, whether scientific, moral, or political, must be treated as a hypothesis to be confirmed or disconfirmed by the experimental evidence and deliberation of an unfettered community of inquiry. The editors place this methodology at the core of all of Hook's philosophical and political work. This excellent collection makes a superb introduction to the thought of a leading intellectual who for too long has been neglected by mainstream American philosophy.
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( In this brilliant work, first published in 1936, Sydney...)
In this brilliant work, first published in 1936, Sydney Hook seeks to resolve one of the classic problems of European intellectual history: how the political radicalism and philosophical materialism of Karl Marx issued from the mystical and conservative intellectual system of G.W.F. Hegel. This edition contains a forward by Christopher Phelps discussing Hook's career and the significance of From Hegel to Marx in the history of ideas.
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(Since its inception, pragmatism has been criticised as an...)
Since its inception, pragmatism has been criticised as anti-metaphysical, its focus on scientific method and critical inquiry is viewed as undermining one of the very foundations of traditional philosophy. Here, Sidney Hook begins his distinguished philosophical career by juxtaposing these terms to show that the pragmatic method cannot begin to help us solve human problems without holding to a particular view of how the world is arranged both physically and conceptually. But this does not imply that pragmatism holds to a traditional, rigid metaphysic; rather, it has an interactive dimension in which human problems are viewed as contingent upon the ways we structure our questions and design methods for finding solutions, both of which can change - and the implied metaphysic evolve - as inquiry uncovers new information about ourselves and the world.
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(One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth...)
One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century details the events of his career and describes meetings with people who have shaped the philosophical and political character of recent history
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(In this fascinating work, Sidney Hook critiques "scientif...)
In this fascinating work, Sidney Hook critiques "scientifically inadequate ways of belief" in the hope that, if we recognize the ways in which they are confused with "genuinely scientific ways of belief," society will be better positioned to assess rationally the social, political, and economic belief systems that vie for our allegiance. In reviewing the powerful ideas of Christianity, mythology, Marxism, nationalism, democracy, and other belief systems, Hook remains firm in his conviction that no such system can long survive if it resists the rational dictate of true scientific method - testing and reformulating beliefs based upon the ability to reach concrete solutions to human problems.
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(Published in 1933, at a time of widespread unemployment a...)
Published in 1933, at a time of widespread unemployment and bank failures, this book by the young Sidney Hook received great critical acclaim and established his reputation as a brilliant expositor of ideas. By "revolutionary interpretation" Hook meant quite literally that Marx's main objective was to stimulate revolutionary opposition to class society. Hook later abandoned the revolutionary views expressed in this volume, but he never abandoned his warm positive views of Marx as a thinker and a fighter for freedom. He eventually concluded that 20th century history had proved both him and Marx wrong about the necessity of revolutionary means to achieve their mutual social goals. But, says his son Ernest B. Hook in an introduction, this concession of error "he did not see . . . as an admission of intellectual weakness, but the natural position of a reasonable person when, in the light of observation and experience, he concludes he has erred." This expanded edition makes readily available for scholars an influential work long out of print and provides critical insight into the intellectual development of one of the 20th-century's great thinkers.
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Sidney Hook was born on December 20, 1902, to Issac and Jennie Hook.
He studied at the City College of New York (BA) and at Columbia University (MA, Ph. D. ). While at Columbia Hook studied with John Dewey.
Without doubt Hook was the most distinguished of Dewey's students and one of the best exponents of classical American pragmatism. He lectured at universities throughout the United States and after 1927 taught in various capacities at New York University. Hook served as the head of the Department of Philosophy of New York University from 1948 to 1969, during which time he founded the New York University Institute of Philosophy. Widely recognized for his contributions to philosophy, Hook received numerous honorary degrees and served as a president of the American Philosophical Association, East Division (1959 - 1960) and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as of the National Academy of Education. Hook's insistence that philosophy address the affairs of life involved him in issues well beyond the confines of academic philosophy. For these contributions he also won distinction, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. After 1973 he was a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, until his death in 1989. Hook applied his pragmatic naturalism to a wide array of philosophical and social issues. In his earliest work, The Metaphysics of Pragmatism (1927), he addressed fundamental issues in pragmatic philosophy itself. In his The Quest of Being (1961) he challenged many philosophical assumptions about the character of Being itself and the task of philosophy by bringing the pragmatic method to bear on the problems of ontology. Hook was also one of the first to introduce Marx to the American philosophical world. As early as 1933, in Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx, he explored the importance, relevance, and problems of Marxist thought. Social philosophy remained an abiding concern of his and was later voiced in Marxism and Beyond (1983) and Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the 20th Century (1987). Hook was not, however, a Marxist thinker, since he rejected the theory of historical materialism and all determinist interpretations of it. He described himself as a social democrat. Besides these philosophical and social applications of his thought, Hook's writings covered such diverse topics as religion (Religion in a Free Society, 1967), education (Education and the Taming of Power, 1973), and constitutional problems (Common Sense and the Fifth Amendment, 1957). His list of publications is monumental, demonstrating the vitality and breadth of his thought. He made his home in Stanford, California, but was buried in South Wardston, Vermont, following his death on July 12, 1989.
(In this fascinating work, Sidney Hook critiques "scientif...)
(Considered by some the most controversial American philos...)
( In this brilliant work, first published in 1936, Sydney...)
(One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth...)
(Published in 1933, at a time of widespread unemployment a...)
(Since its inception, pragmatism has been criticised as an...)
(Sidney Hook, one of America's leading social philosophers...)
(Sidney Hook is arguably America's most controversial inte...)
Hook described his thought as pragmatic naturalism, experimentalism, or "the philosophy of pragmatism in the tradition of Charles Sanders Pierce and John Dewey. " In essence, his philosophical approach amounts to the applying of the method of science, or experimentalism, to all domains of thought and life. This pragmatic method does not mean a rigid scientism denying all valuative dimensions of experience. In fact, Hook argued that warranted assertions can be made about matters of value as well as of fact. Accordingly, Hook stressed the importance of creative intelligence in thought and action. Such creative thought, however, must be informed and guided by a scientific method. Hook argued, as William James did, that humans live in an "open universe" and thus play a creative role in the building of a social world and transforming the natural environment. Neither humanity nor its universe is closed, determined, or finished. Hook held this conviction to be crucial to an experimental view of the world, and it pitted him against all forms of determinism. He challenged the cogency of Marxist historical materialism, religious predestination, and forms of quietism. The demand placed on humans in an open universe, as Hook saw it, is to respond to concrete situations through informed thought and action. Of course, humans are not absolutely free; life takes place in relation to others and to the natural and social world. Nevertheless, there remains the capacity and demand for humans to act freely in their world. The close relation of thought and action is another mark of Hook's thought, as it is of all forms of pragmatism. For Hook, ideas, whatever else they may be, were guides for action that were to be used in critical engagement with the affairs of life. They must be tested by their ability to inform further thought and action. This experimental testing of ideas against the demands and needs of experience is what Hook specifically meant by the scientific method. Not surprisingly, he saw experimentalism as the most adequate way to guide and test human thinking and doing in the quest to make a better world. Hook consistently claimed that philosophy is "the quest for wisdom. " The philosopher's task is not to advocate specific policies or plans of action. Rather, the thinker is to employ the method of intelligence in order to define, clarify, and evaluate the social problems confronting us. Again, like Dewey, Hook understood philosophy as normative social criticism. As a normative discipline, it asks about truth and goodness; as social criticism, it explores the basic issues and problems of social existence. By rigorously practicing this idea of philosophy Hook made an enduring contribution to American thought and life.
Quotations:
"Tolerance always has limits - it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant. "
"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system. "
"The easiest rationalization for the refusal to seek the truth is the denial that truth exists. "
"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature. "
"One of the central assumptions of the concept of democracy, perhaps its most central assumption, is that by and large human beings are better judges of their own interests. .. . The operating maxim of the democratic ideology is, "Whoever wears the shoe knows best where it pinches. "
"The difference between science and religion is that the former wishes to get rid of mysteries whereas the latter worships them. "
"Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments. "
"In contrast to totalitarianism, democracy can face and live with the truth about itself. "
He married Carrie Katz in 1924, with whom he had one son. The couple separated in 1933. In 1935, Hook married Ann Zinken, with whom he had two children.