Biography:Curt John Ducasse

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Short description: American philosopher (1881–1969)


Curt John Ducasse
Born(1881-07-07)July 7, 1881
Angoulême, France
DiedSeptember 3, 1969(1969-09-03) (aged 88)
Providence, Rhode Island
Alma mater
EraModern philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy
Institutions
Doctoral advisorJosiah Royce
Doctoral students
Main interests
Philosophy of mind, aesthetics, philosophy of religion
Notable ideas
Adverbial theory of perception

Curt John Ducasse (fr; 7 July 1881 – 3 September 1969) was a French-born American philosopher who taught at the University of Washington and Brown University. He was known as an early champion of analytic philosophy inspired by the methods of the sciences, albeit with a mystical streak that included a noted interest in parapsychology and the possibilities of life before birth and life after death. He was a president of the American Philosophical Association (1939–1940) and a founder and the first president of the Association for Symbolic Logic (1936–1938).

Early life and education

Ducasse was born 7 July 1881 in Angoulême, France. He spent one year in England, emigrated to Mexico in 1900, then spent two years in Mexico before settling in the United States,[1] where he soon joined the Theosophical Society.[2] He obtained A.B. (1908) and A.M. (1909) degrees in philosophy from University of Washington. In 1912 he obtained his PhD from Harvard University under the mentorship of Josiah Royce.[3][4] While there he met William James, who would remain a lasting influence on his work.[5]

Career

Ducasse taught at the University of Washington (1912–1926)[1] and then Brown University (1926–1958).[3][5] He served as chair of the Brown department of philosophy 1930–1951 and dean of the graduate school 1947–1949. Two of his notable students were Roderick Chisholm[1] and Richard Cartwright.[6]

He is most notable for his work in philosophy of mind and aesthetics and for being an early champion of analytic philosophy.[1] His first book Causation and the Types of Necessity in 1924 put forward a non-Humean theory of causation and a theory of categories that also became the basis of his Carus Lectures, published in 1951 as Nature, Mind, and Death.[7] He was noted for championing analytic methods in philosophy and insisting on scientific rigor and precision in philosophy, particularly in his 1941 Philosophy as a Science. However, in Roderick Chisholm's recollection of his own words, he also had "a rather strong mystical bent." In his work in aesthetics, as in 1929's The Philosophy of Art and Art, the Critics, and You (1944), he applied his theories of causation and particularly an "adverbial theory of perception" to a participatory and relativist conception of art. Ducasse was influenced by William James, Josiah Royce, and Arthur Schopenhauer, and his own influence can be seen in the work of Roderick Chisholm and Wilfrid Sellars.[3][5]

Ducasse lead the committee that organized the Pacific division of the American Philosophical Association in 1924, then later served as the president of the Eastern division of the American Philosophical Association (1939–40), president of the American Society for Aesthetics (1945), and president of the Philosophy of Science Association (1958–61). He was a founding member and first president (1936–1938) of the Association for Symbolic Logic.[3]

Ducasse also wrote on parapsychology. He was a member of the American Society for Psychical Research and served a term as its first vice president beginning in 1965.[2] Ducasse was a believer in reincarnation: science writer Martin Gardner observed that Ducasse was notable for "combining nonbelief in God with a belief in the preexistence and the afterlife of human souls."[8] His book A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life After Death (1961) was a philosophical attempt to examine the idea of life after death,[9] and in it he expressed his belief in survival.[3] The book was both praised and criticized by the philosopher and leading British parapsychologist H. H. Price.[10] Further praise and criticism came from philosopher Corliss Lamont, who argued that some of the content was based on an implausible mind–body dualism, while at the same time he named it "one of the most powerful arguments I have encountered for post-mortem survival."[11]

The September 1952 issue of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research was devoted to a symposium in Ducasse's honor, and he received a festschrift in 1966 titled Current Philosophical Issues: Essays in Honor of Curt John Ducasse.[3]

Personal life and death

Ducasse married Mable Lisle, a Seattle, Washington artist, in 1921.[1] He died on 3 September 1969 in Providence, Rhode Island.[3]

Books

  • Causation and the Types of Necessity (1924). University of Washington Press. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • The Philosophy of Art (1929). The Dial Press. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • Philosophy as a Science (1941). O. Piest. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • Art, the Critics, and You (1944). O. Piest. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • Is a Life After Death Possible? (1948). University of California Press, Berkeley. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • Nature, Mind, and Death (1951). Open Court Publishing Company. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • A Philosophical Scrutiny of Religion (1953). Ronald Press Company. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life after Death (1961). Thomas. Template:Library of Congress Control Number
  • Truth, Knowledge, and Causation (1968). Routledge & K. Paul. ISBN 9780710063335 Template:Library of Congress Control Number

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Shook, John R. (2005). "Ducasse, Curt John (1881–1969)". The Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers. Bloomsbury Publishing. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Landsberg, P. T. (Autumn 1977). "Reviewed Work: Causing, Perceiving and Believing by Peter H. Hare, Edward H. Madden". Leonardo 10 (4): 340. doi:10.2307/1573795. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Chisholm, Roderick M. (June 1970). "C. J. Ducasse (1881-1969)". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 30 (4): 631–633. 
  4. ↑ Peter H. Hare, Edward H. Madden (eds.), Causing, Perceiving and Believing, Springer, 2012, p. 6.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Shook, John R. (Winter 2010). "Peter Hare on the Philosophy of Curt John Ducasse". Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 46 (1): 47–52. doi:10.2979/tra.2010.46.1.47. 
  6. ↑ Shook, John R. (2005). "Cartwright, Richard Lee (1925– )". The Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers. Bloomsbury Publishing. 
  7. ↑ Garvin, Lucius (September 1952). "Ducasse's Carus Lectures". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 13 (1): 57–68. doi:10.2307/2103667. 
  8. ↑ Gardner, Martin (2009). When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That. Hill & Wang. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-374-53241-3. 
  9. ↑ Flew, Antony (July 1962). "Reviewed Work: A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life After Death by C. J. Ducasse". The Philosophical Review 71 (3): 402–404. doi:10.2307/2183446. 
  10. ↑ Price, H. H. (January 1963). "Reviewed Work: A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life after Death by C. J. Ducasse". Philosophy East and West 12 (4): 362–364. doi:10.2307/1396821. 
  11. ↑ Lamont, Corliss (November 1962). "Reviewed Work: A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life after Death by C. J. Ducasse". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 13 (51): 244–248. 

Further reading

  • Frederick C. Dommeyer. (1966). Current Philosophical Issues: Essays in Honor of Curt John Ducasse. Thomas.
  • Peter H. Hare and Edward H. Madden. (1975). Causing, Perceiving and Believing: An Examination of the Philosophy of C. J. Ducasse. Springer.
  • Jay Barry. (1982). Gentlemen Under the Elms. Brown University. Chapter 10 is a profile and biography of Ducasse, with photographs.



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