Lewis Samuel Feuer (December 7, 1912 – November 24, 2002) was an American sociologist. Initially a committed

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, he became a

neo-conservative Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party alo ...

Life

Feuer was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, grew up on the Lower East Side, and attended

DeWitt Clinton High school DeWitt Clinton High School is a public high school located since 1929 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Opened in 1897 in Lower Manhattan as an all-boys school, it maintained that status for 86 years before becoming co-ed in 1983. From i ...

. He graduated from City College with distinction in 1931, and was awarded a Ph.D. 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 ...

in 1935. for a dissertation in philosophy entitled "The philosophical analysis of space and time", supervised by

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He created the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which has been applied in a wide variety of disciplines, inclu ...

. While at Harvard, Feuer joined

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

and Alan Sweezy in founding the Harvard Teachers Union. This represents one obvious example of his persistent involvement in radical politics throughout the 1930s. During World War II, he served as a liaison between the American and French Armies on

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, where he was demoted for attempting to organize the indentured Indochinese and Indonesian

coolie Coolie (also spelled koelie, kouli, khuli, khulie, kuli, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically those of Indian people, Indian or Chinese descent. The word ''coolie'' was first used in the 16th cent ...

laborers who were being used to build an airstrip for the

Free French Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...

forces. After World War II he taught at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

and the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, where he early witnessed some of the student unrest about which he was to write. He constantly challenged the leaders of the student movement and appeared in a widely publicized debate with student leader

Mario Savio Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American activist and a key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Sproul Hal ...

. He left Berkeley to go to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. His last teaching position was as University Professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, and was professor emeritus at the time of his death in 2002. Feuer visited the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during one of the first academic exchanges in the period after Stalin's death, often referred to as " the Thaw" and was expelled for challenging Soviet orthodoxies regarding Marxist thought. His experiences at Berkeley, where he challenged left wing student movements and professors who ceded to their demands, led Feuer to reject left wing, radical politics and he wrote continuously after this period about the corrupting influences of ideology on thought, the dangers of totalitarianism in the modern world and the role of the United States as a bulwark against tyranny and authoritarianism in the modern world. His edited collection, ''Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy'' (1959) is one of the most widely used readers on Marxian thought ever published. Politically, he was closely allied with the philosophical anti-communism of

Sidney Hook Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his youth ...

. His work ranged across a wide range of fields such as Marxist and neo-Marxist thought, the

sociology of knowledge The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought, the social context within which it arises, and the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology. Instead, it deals w ...

, the

sociology of science The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociolo ...

, sociological theory, ideology and intellectuals, the

history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...

, the sociology of generations, the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and sociology of Jews and

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, and philosophy. He was one of the earliest interpreters of the relationship between psychoanalysis and philosophy and produced many studies of the psychoanalytic dimensions of ideology and intellectual life. His extensive knowledge of the more arcane intricacies of Marx's life and a deep love of the fictional character of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

were the basis for a novel entitled ''The Case of the Revolutionists Daughter: Sherlock Holmes Meets Karl Marx'' (1983). The novel can be read as a critique of Marx's personal moral failings, which call into question his philosophy and politics. After rejecting Marxism, Feuer reportedly adopted the mantra, "For Hegel, I would not give a bagel."

Works

*''Spinoza and the Rise Of Liberalism'' (1951) *''Psychoanalysis and Ethics'' (1955) *''Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels: political and philosophical writings'' (1959), editor *''The Scientific Intellectual: the psychological and sociological origins of modern science'' (1963) *''The Conflict of Generations: the character and significance of student movements'' (1969) *
Marx and the Intellectuals: A Set of Post-Ideological Essays
' (1969) *''Einstein and the Generations of Science'' (1974) *''Ideology and the Ideologists'' (1975) *''The Case of the Revolutionist's Daughter: Sherlock Holmes Meets Karl Marx'' (1983) *''Imperialism and the Anti-imperialist Mind'' (1986) *''Varieties of Scientific Experience: emotive aims in scientific hypotheses'' (1995)

Notes

External links

''New York Times'' obituaryLewis S. Feuer papers, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections, Brandeis University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feuer, Lewis Samuel 1912 births 2002 deaths City College of New York alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American sociologists Vassar College faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty DeWitt Clinton High School alumni Spinoza scholars Former Marxists Neoconservatism

Life

Works

Further reading

Notes

External links