Joseph Tussman (4 December 1914 – 21 October 2005) was an American educator. He was chair of the

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

department at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, a prominent educational reformer, and a key figure in the campus controversy over the 1950s

loyalty oath Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...

. Tussman was born in Chicago and grew up in Milwaukee. His father, Shleime Tussman, was a second-generation cantor, and his mother, Malka Heifetz Tussman, was an eminent Yiddish poet. He studied under Alexander Meiklejohn at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. Following his graduation from Wisconsin, he followed his mentor west to do graduate work at Berkeley. He served in an army-intelligence unit in

southwest China Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Xizang. Geography Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After his discharge, he returned to Berkeley. California began to require University employees to sign a loyalty oath in the 1950s, and Tussman was a key organizer of protests. Twenty percent of the Berkeley faculty refused to sign, and 31 professors were dismissed. Being untenured, however, Tussman eventually signed the oath for economic reasons. He said it was the saddest day in his life. Tussman moved to the philosophy department in 1952, leaving in 1955 when denied tenure for insufficient scholarly publication. Over the next few years he taught at Syracuse and Wesleyan and completed his first book, ''Obligation and the Body Politic''. He returned to Berkeley in 1963 and became chair of philosophy the following year. He was a key figure in the Free Speech Movement of 1964. In 1965, Tussman founded the Tussman Experimental College Program (modeled on a program that Meiklejohn had created at Madison), which was offered to 150 students through their freshman and sophomore years and focused on great works written during times of great upheaval. The experiment lasted four years. He then continued to teach in the philosophy department until his retirement in 1983.

Publications

*''Obligation and the Body Politic'' (1960) *''Government and the Mind'' (1977) *''The Burden of Office: Agamemnon and Other Losers'' (1989) *''The Beleaguered College'' (1997)

References

Joseph Tussman obituary.
''UC Berkeley News'' *Charles Burress (October 30, 2005)
Joseph Tussman -- ex-philosophy chairman at Cal.
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

''
Joseph Tussman memorial website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tussman, Joseph 1914 births University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty 2005 deaths