May Brodbeck (July 26, 1917 – August 1, 1983) was an American

philosopher of science 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 ...

Biography

Brodbeck was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

. She studied chemistry at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, attending evening courses while working, and earned a bachelor's degree in 1941. Thereafter, she worked as a high-school chemistry teacher, before being recruited into the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

. Following the war, she studied philosophy at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

, completing a Ph.D. supervised by

Gustav Bergmann Gustav Bergmann (; May 4, 1906 – April 21, 1987) was an Austrian-American philosopher. He studied at the University of Vienna and was a member of the Vienna Circle. Bergmann was influenced by the philosophers Moritz Schlick, Friedrich W ...

in 1947, on the subject of

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

's '' Logic: The Theory of Inquiry''. Upon finishing her PhD, she was offered a professorship at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, where she worked from 1947 to 1974, eventually rising to chair of the philosophy department (1967–1970) and dean of the graduate school (1972–1974). She then returned to the University of Iowa as Carver Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculties. In the administrative part of her role at the University of Iowa, among other initiatives she focused in particular on the status of women in the university, and oversaw the creation of one of the first

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

programs. She stepped down from administration in 1981, retired in 1983, and died later that year in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

Work

Brodbeck's career focused on a number of issues in the philosophy of science, in particular aiming to include the

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

within its remit. She edited two widely read anthologies on the subject: ''Readings in the Philosophy of Science'' (1953, co-edited with

Herbert Feigl Herbert Feigl (; ; December 14, 1902 – June 1, 1988) was an Austrian- American philosopher and an early member of the Vienna Circle. He coined the term " nomological danglers". Biography The son of a trained weaver who became a textile designer ...

), and ''Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences'' (1968). Later in her career, she also wrote on the

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...

, defending a form of

psychophysical parallelism In the philosophy of mind, psychophysical parallelism (or simply parallelism) is the theory that mental and bodily events are perfectly coordinated, without any causal interaction between them. As such, it affirms the correlation of mental and bod ...

Select bibliography

*'' Readings in the Philosophy of Science'' (1953, co-edited with

) At

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

.
List of works
by May Brodbeck listed at

PhilPapers PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of journal articles in philosophy. It is maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and it has "394,867 registered users, including the majority of profes ...

References

External links

*
Brodbeck, May (1917–1983).
'' Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia,'' ''

Encyclopedia.com ''Encyclopedia.com'' is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information, images, and videos from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works. History The website was launched by Infonautics in March 1998. Infonautics w ...

.'' 26 Jul. 2019 *Addis, Laird (2010)
"Brodbeck, May Selznick"
''

The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers ''The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers'' is a 2005 four-volume biographical reference work edited by John R. Shook, then of Oklahoma State University, published by Thoemmes Continuum. Its consulting editors were Richard T. Hull, Bruce ...

'' (Archived by

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

)
Portraits of Brodbeck
via Iowa Women's Archives, and Minnesota Philosophy Departmen

c.1953 featuring her. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brodbeck, May 1917 births 1983 deaths American women philosophers Jewish American academics Jewish philosophers American philosophers of science New York University alumni University of Iowa alumni University of Minnesota faculty University of Iowa faculty 20th-century American philosophers People from Newark, New Jersey 20th-century American women 20th-century American Jews