Ralph Barton Perry (July 3, 1876 – January 22, 1957) was an American

philosopher 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 ...

. He was a strident moral idealist who stated in 1909 that, to him, idealism meant "to interpret life consistently with

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

, scientific, and

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

truth." Perry's viewpoints on religion stressed the notion that religious thinking possessed legitimacy should it exist within a framework accepting of human reason and social progress.

Biography

Ralph Barton Perry was born in Poultney, Vermont on July 3, 1876. He was educated at Princeton ( B.A., 1896) and at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

( M.A., 1897; Ph.D., 1899), where, after teaching philosophy for three years at Williams and Smith colleges, he was instructor (1902–05), assistant professor (1905–13), full

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

(1913–30) and Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy (1930–46). He was president of the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

's eastern division in 1920–21. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1928 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1939. A pupil of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

, whose '' Essays in Radical Empiricism'' he edited (1912), Perry became one of the leaders of the New Realism movement. Perry argued for a naturalistic theory of value and a New Realist theory of

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

and knowledge. He wrote a celebrated biography of

, which won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and proceeded to a revision of his critical approach to natural knowledge. An active member among a group of American New Realist philosophers, he elaborated around 1910 the program of new realism. However, he soon dissented from moral and spiritual

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

, and turned to a philosophy of disillusionment. Perry was an advocate of a militant democracy: in his words "total but not

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

". ''Puritanism and Democracy'' (1944) is a famous wartime attempt to reconcile two fundamental concepts in the origins of modern America. Between 1946 and 1948, he delivered in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

his Gifford Lectures, titled ''Realms of Value''. He married Rachel Berenson on August 15, 1905, and they lived in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. Their son was Edward Barton Perry born at their home 5 Avon Street in Cambridge, September 27, 1906. In 1932, Edward married Harriet Armington Seelye (born

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, May 28, 1909), daughter of physician and surgeon Dr. Walker Clarke Seelye of Worcester and Annie Ide Barrows Seelye, formerly of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

. In 1919, he gave the commencement address for the first graduating class of

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

, which had opened its doors in 1915. Perry died at his home in Cambridge on January 22, 1957, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Selected publications

* ''The Approach to Philosophy'', (1905), New York, Chicago and Boston: Charles Scribner's Sons
''The Moral Economy''
(1909), New York: Charles Scribner's Son * ''Present Philosophical Tendencies: A Critical Survey of Naturalism, Idealism, Pragmatism, and Realism, together with a Synopsis of the Philosophy of William James'', (1912), New York:Longmans, Green & Co. * Holt, EB; Marvin, WT; Montague, WP; Perry, RB; Pitkin, WB; Spaulding, EG, ''The New Realism: Cooperative Studies in Philosophy'', (1912), New York: The Macmillan Company * ''The Free Man and the Soldier'', (1916), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
''The Present Conflict of Ideals: A Study of the Philosophical Background of the World War''
(1918), New York: Longmans, Green & Co. * ''Annotated Bibliography of the Writings of William James'', (1920), Longmans, Green & Co. * ''The Plattsburg movement: A Chapter of America's Participation in the World War'' (1921), New York: E.P. Dutton & company * ''A Modernist View of National Ideals'' (1926) Berkeley: University of California Press, Howison Lectures in Philosophy, 1925 * ''General Theory of Value'' (1926) * ''Philosophy of the Recent Past: An Outline of European and American Philosophy Since 1860'', (1926), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons * ''The Hope for Immortality'' (1935) * ''The Thought and Character of William James'', 2 vols. (1935) * ''Plea for an Age Movement'' (1942) New York: The Vanguard Press alk at 1941 Princeton and Harvard Reunions* ''Puritanism and Democracy'', (1944) * ''Characteristically American: Five Lectures Delivered on the William W. Cook Foundation at the University of Michigan, November–December 1948'', (1949), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949 * ''Realms of Value'', (1954), Harvard University Press ased on Gifford Lectures* ''The Humanity of Man'', (1956), New York: George Braziller * "A Definition of morality". In P. W. Taylor (Ed.), Problems of moral philosophy: an introduction to ethics (pp. 13–24). Belmont, CA: Dickenson, 1967

References

External links

Biography
at the Gifford Lectures site * * *
Some works by and about Perry
in the Mead Project website

The Monist 12 (1901–2): 446–458.
Review: The Refutation of Idealism
Reviews, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. I, No. 3 (Feb. 4, 1904), 76–77.

Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods 7 (1910): 5–14
Editor’s Preface
'' Essays in Radical Empiricism'' (1912) by William James * ''Lectures on the Harvard Classics''. The Harvard Classics, Volume LI (1914): *
Philosophy: I. General Introduction
*

*

*

Non-Resistance and the Present War--A Reply to Mr. Russell
International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 25 No. 3 (April, 1915). 307–316. {{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Ralph Barton 1876 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American economists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American educational theorists American bibliographers American bibliophiles American book and manuscript collectors American educators American ethicists American historians of philosophy American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American philosophy academics American political philosophers Analytic philosophers American epistemologists Harvard University alumni Harvard University Department of Philosophy faculty Literacy and society theorists American metaphysics writers Ontologists People from Poultney (town), Vermont American philosophers of culture Philosophers of economics American philosophers of education Philosophers of history American philosophers of mind Philosophers of pessimism American philosophers of religion American philosophers of social science Philosophers of war Presidents of the American Philosophical Association Princeton University alumni Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Scholars of American education Theorists on Western civilization Writers about activism and social change Writers about religion and science Writers from Massachusetts Writers from Vermont Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Members of the American Philosophical Society

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References

External links