Virgil Aldrich
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(July 2018) |
Virgil Charles Aldrich | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 September 1903 Narsinghpur, India |
| Died | 28 May 1998 Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Ohio Wesleyan University, Oxford University, Sorbonne, University of California, Berkeley |
| Notable work | Philosophy of Art,The Body of a Person |
| Spouse | Louise Hafliger |
| Children | David Virgil Aldrich |
| Awards | L.H.D. from Ohio Wesleyan University and Kenyon College |
| Era | 20th century |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy, Philosophy of art |
Main interests | Philosophy of art, language, religion |
Notable ideas | Definitions of vagueness, the distinction between vagueness of symbols and senses |
Virgil Charles Aldrich(13 September 1903 inNarsinghpur,India– 28 May 1998 inSalt Lake City,Utah), was an Americanphilosopher of art,language,andreligion.
Early life and education
[edit]The son of Floyd Clement Aldrich and his wife Ann Hanley, Virgil Aldrich earned hisBachelor of Artsdegree atOhio Wesleyan Universityin 1925. He studied atOxford Universityin 1927 and then went on to earn aDiplôme d'Études Supérieuresde Philosophieat theSorbonnein 1928 before completing hisPh.D.at theUniversity of California Berkeleyin 1931. He married Louise Hafliger on 3 September 1927, and they had one son, David Virgil Aldrich.
Academic career
[edit]Aldrich's first academic appointment was his appointment as aninstructorinphilosophyatRice Universityin 1931 and Sterling Fellow atYale Universityin 1931-32. Promoted toassistant professor,he remained at Rice until 1942, when he was appointed visiting professor atColumbia Universityfrom 1942 to 1946. Appointedprofessorof philosophy atKenyon Collegein 1946, he remained there until 1965, serving as a visiting professor atBrown Universityin 1962-63. In 1965, he became a professor of philosophy at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,where he remained until his retirement in 1972. On his retirement, he moved toSalt Lake City, Utah,where he became an adjunct professor at theUniversity of Utah.
Aldrich served as Director of theKyoto American Studies InstituteinJapan[1]and for short periods was visiting professor atHarvard University,theUniversity of Michigan,andthe University of Texas.He served as trustee and president of theAmerican Society of Aesthetics[2]and president ofAmerican Philosophical Association.
"Some Meanings of Vague" (1937)
[edit]In his article "Some Meanings of Vague",[3]Aldrich puts forth a series of definitions ofvagueobjects andsensumand then argues that any empiricist must account for vague sensum every bit as much as clear sensum, without skirting the issue. He takes there to be many kinds of vagueness—importantly, there is the vagueness of symbols and vagueness of senses. Here, symbols are anything that is used to refer to, including verbal words, signs, pictures, and more. Vagueness regarding symbols can be the same as the vagueness which regards the senses. There can, additionally, be vagueness of the practices surrounding the use of the symbol to refer. These, he suggests, should be avoided.
Honors
[edit]- L.H.D.,Ohio Wesleyan University,1963
- L.H.D.,Kenyon College,1972
Writings
[edit]Books:
- Language and philosophy([Kyoto]: Kyoto American Studies Seminar, 1955)
- Philosophy of Art,(Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1963)
- The Body of a Person,(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988)
- My Century,Nantucket, Massachusetts, EditAndPublishYourBook.com/Lulu, 20 November 2010
- Philosophical Reflections,Nantucket, Massachusetts, EditAndPublishYourBook.com/Lulu,
11 December 2010
Contributions:
- Readings in Philosophical Analysis(1951)
- Reflections on Art(1958)
- Religious Experience and Truth(1961)
- Faith and the Philosophers(1962)
- World Perspectives on Philosophy(1967)
- "Design, Composition, and Symbol",The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism(Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 1969), pp. 379–388.
- Studies in philosophy: a symposium on Gilbert Ryle,Edited by Konstantin Kolenda. (Houston, Tex.: William Marsh Rice University, 1972)
- "Pictures and Persons" inReview of Metaphysics(1975)
- "Description and expression: Physicalism restricted,"Inquiryvol. 20 (1977), pp. 149–164.
- Falling in love with wisdom: American philosophers talk about their calling,edited by David D. Karnos, Robert G. Shoemaker. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993
Festschrift
- Body, mind, and method: essays in honor of Virgil C. Aldrichedited by Donald F. Gustafson and Bangs L. Tapscott. (Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel Pub. Co., 1979)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Hull, Richard T. (1 January 2013)."Biography: Virgil Charles Aldrich".The American Philosophical Association Centennial Series.pp. 455–457.doi:10.5840/apapa2013475.Retrieved8 August2023.
- ^"Front Matter".The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.29(3). 1971.ISSN0021-8529.Retrieved8 August2023.
- ^Analysis,Vol. 4, No. 6 (Aug. 1937), pp. 89–95, Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Analysis Committee.
Sources
[edit]- University of Utah Library
- Marquis Who's Who
External links
[edit]
- 1903 births
- 1998 deaths
- 20th-century American philosophers
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Indian emigrants to the United States
- Philosophers from Texas
- Philosophers from New York (state)
- American philosophers of language
- Ohio Wesleyan University alumni
- University of Paris alumni
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- Philosophers from Utah
- Philosophers from North Carolina
- Rice University faculty
- Columbia University faculty
- University of Utah faculty
- Kenyon College faculty
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty
- American philosophers of art
- People from Narsinghpur
- University of Michigan faculty
- American male writers of Indian descent
- American expatriates in France
- Philosophers from Ohio
- American male non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- American expatriates in England