George Willard Pitcher (May 19, 1925 – January 12, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was a professor of philosophy at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

from 1956 to 1982. He was an expert on the work of

George Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

and

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

Early life and education

George Willard Pitcher was born in

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from t ...

. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1947 with a BS in electrical engineering. After graduating, he served in the Navy for three years in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. He went on to do graduate work at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, which he temporarily left during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

when he was recalled to active duty. He returned to Harvard after his service. In the 1955–56 academic year, he spent the year at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

on a traveling fellowship where he studied under J.L. Austin. He earned his PhD in 1957. His PhD thesis was titled ''Illocutionary acts: an analysis of language in terms of human acts''.

Career

In 1956, Pitcher joined the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University as a faculty member. He served as acting chair and associate chair of the philosophy department for many years. He taught there until his retirement in 1982. While an emeritus professor, Pitcher continued to publish papers for several years.

Personal life

Pitcher and Edward T. Cone, a composer and fellow Princeton professor, were companions for nearly 48 years, until Cone's death in 2004. Pitcher and Cone adopted a stray pregnant dog that they found in their garden shed which they later named Lupa. They kept one of the puppies from Lupa’s litter, which they named Remus, and gave the other puppies away. The two dogs were taken by Pitcher and Cone everywhere, including on a trip to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2. Pitcher wrote a book about his and Cone’s life with the dogs titled ''The Dogs Who Came to Stay''. From 1992 until his death, Pitcher was a trustee of the Edward T. Cone Foundation, which supports educational and cultural institutions.

Awards and honors

Pitcher received a 1965–66

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

and was a member 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 ...

Publications

Books

*''The Philosophy of Wittgenstein'' (Prentice-Hall, 1964) *''Theory of Perception'' (Princeton University Press, 1971) *''A Life of Grace: The Biography of Grace Lansing Lambert'' (Princeton University Press, 1987) *''The Dogs Who Came to Stay'' (Penguin Publishing Group, 1996)

Journal articles

*''The Misfortunes of the Dead'', American Philosophical Quarterly 21/2 (1984): 183–188.

Editor

*''Truth'' (Contemporary Perspectives in Philosophy Series (Prentice Hall, 1964) *''Ryle; a Collection of Critical Essays'' with Oscar P. Wood (Macmillan, 1970) *''Wittgenstein: The Philosophical Investigations'' (University of Notre Dame Press, 1974) *''Berkeley: The Arguments of the Philosophers'' (Berkeley, 1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitcher, George American philosophers 20th-century American philosophers Princeton University faculty United States Naval Academy alumni Harvard University alumni 1925 births 2018 deaths