Benjamin Apthorp Gould Fuller (March 9, 1879 – March 15, 1956) was a philosopher, author of ''A History of Philosophy'', and 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 ...

.Obituaries - Los Angeles Times , date=1956-03-21 He is also known and published as B.A.G. Fuller. He was the son of Horace Williams Fuller and Emily Gorham Carter. He studied at

Roxbury Latin School The Roxbury Latin School is a private boys' day school that was founded in 1645 in the town of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. It bills ...

in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and received his

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

, A.M., and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

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

in 1900, 1902, and 1906, respectively. In 1902 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, and received his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in 1905. His Ph.D. thesis on "The Problem of Evil in

Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...

" was published in 1912. He was described as "a representative of Epicureanism at its best." Fuller taught philosophy at Harvard from 1906 to 1910. In 1910 he traveled around the world, visiting Kashmir, northern and central India,

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, and Japan, developing "the habit of never taking a ticket further than the next stop, and came to the realization that life is much too short to hurry." He was commissioned as an infantry captain in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and served from 1917 to 1919. During this time, he was assigned to the staff of General

Tasker H. Bliss Tasker Howard Bliss (December 31, 1853 – November 9, 1930) was a United States Army officer who served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from September 22, 1917 until May 18, 1918. He was also a diplomat involved in the peace negotiati ...

in the American Section of the Supreme War Council at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

from January 1918 to June 1919. He was awarded the Ordine della Corona d'Italia.U.S. Adjutant General Military Records, 1631-1976, p. 357 In 1923 Henry Holt & Co. published his ''History of Greek Philosophy, Thales to Democritus.'' He was a professor and fellow at the Graduate School of the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

, where he began teaching in 1924. He was subsequently a professor of philosophy at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

from 1933 to 1941. Fuller maintained a home in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

from 1932 until his death. The house is a

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cult ...

. He is buried in Taxco, Mexico, where he had a winter home.

References

External links

Preliminary Inventory of the Benjamin Apthorp Gould Fuller Papers, 1915-1919
1879 births 1956 deaths Harvard University alumni 20th-century American philosophers 19th-century American philosophers University of Southern California faculty University of Cincinnati faculty Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford People from Brookline, Massachusetts Roxbury Latin School alumni Military personnel from Massachusetts United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army officers {{US-philosopher-stub