Norman Adrian Malcolm (; 11 June 1911 – 4 August 1990) 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 ...

. Malcolm was primarily active in the fields of

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

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 ...

, and

philosophy of psychology Philosophy of psychology is concerned with the history and foundations of psychology. It deals with both epistemological and ontological issues and shares interests with other fields, including philosophy of mind and theoretical psychology. Philo ...

Biography

Malcolm was born in

Selden, Kansas Selden is a city in Sheridan County, Kansas, Sheridan County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 184. History Selden was laid out in 1888. It was named for one of its founder ...

. He studied philosophy with O. K. Bouwsma at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, then enrolled as a graduate student 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 1933. At

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1938–9, he met

G. E. Moore George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the initiators of analytic philosophy. He and Russell began de-emphasizing ...

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 ...

. Malcolm attended Wittgenstein's lectures on the

philosophical 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 ...

foundations of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

throughout 1939 and remained one of Wittgenstein's closest friends. Malcolm's memoir of his time with Wittgenstein, published in 1958, is widely acclaimed as one of the most captivating and most accurate portraits of Wittgenstein's remarkable personality. After serving in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

from 1942 to 1945, Malcolm, with his wife, Leonida, and their son, Raymond Charles Malcolm, resided in Cambridge again in 1946–47. He saw a good deal of Wittgenstein during that time, and they continued to correspond frequently thereafter. In 1947, Malcolm joined the faculty at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he taught until his retirement. In 1949, Wittgenstein was a guest of the Malcolms in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. In that year Malcolm introduced O. K. Bouwsma to Wittgenstein. Bouwsma remained close to Wittgenstein until Wittgenstein's death in 1951. Malcolm was a

Fulbright research fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

during the academic year of 1960-1961. From 1972-73 he was President of the Eastern Division 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 ...

and in 1975 joined 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 ...

. he died in London England in 1990

Philosophical work

In 1959, his book ''Dreaming'' was published, in which he elaborated on Wittgenstein's question as to whether it really mattered if people who tell dreams "really had these images while they slept, or whether it merely seems so to them on waking". This work was also a response to Descartes' ''Meditations''. Other than that he is known for propagating the view that

common sense Common sense () is "knowledge, judgement, and taste which is more or less universal and which is held more or less without reflection or argument". As such, it is often considered to represent the basic level of sound practical judgement or know ...

philosophy and

ordinary language Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophical methodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting how words are ordinarily used to convey meaning in ...

philosophy are the same. He was generally supportive of Moore's theory of knowledge and certitude, though he found Moore's style and method of arguing to be ineffective. His critique of Moore's articles on skepticism (and also on Moore's '

Here is a hand Here is one hand is an epistemological argument created by G. E. Moore in reaction against philosophical skepticism about the external world and in support of common sense. The argument takes the following form: * Here is one hand, * And here is a ...

' argument) lay the foundation for the renewed interest in common sense philosophy and ordinary language philosophy. He was among the most important and influential of the ordinary-language philosophers in the United States. Malcolm was also a defender of a modal version of the

ontological argument In the philosophy of religion, an ontological argument is a deductive philosophical argument, made from an ontological basis, that is advanced in support of the existence of God. Such arguments tend to refer to the state of being or existing. ...

. In 1960 he argued that the argument originally presented by

Anselm of Canterbury Anselm of Canterbury OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also known as (, ) after his birthplace and () after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Canterb ...

in the second chapter of his ''

Proslogion The ''Proslogion'' () is a prayer (or meditation) written by the medieval cleric Saint Anselm of Canterbury between 1077 and 1078. In each chapter, Anselm juxtaposes contrasting attributes of God to resolve apparent contradictions in Christian ...

'' was just an inferior version of the argument propounded in chapter three. His argument is similar to those produced by

Charles Hartshorne Charles Hartshorne (; June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics, but also contributed to ornithology. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and ...

and

Alvin Plantinga Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of philosophy of religion, epistemology (particularly on issues involving theory of justification, epistemic ...

. Malcolm argued that a God cannot simply exist as a matter of contingency but rather must exist in necessity if at all. He argued that if God exists in contingency then his existence is subject to a series of conditions that would then be greater than God and this would be a contradiction (referring to Anselm's definition of God as That than which Nothing Greater can be Conceived).

Publications

Books

*
Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir
' (with a biographical sketch by G. H. von Wright) *''Wittgenstein: A Religious Point Of View?'' (edited by Peter Winch) *''Nothing Is Hidden: Wittgenstein's criticism of his early thought'' *''Problems of Mind: Descartes to Wittgenstein'' * ''Consciousness and Causality'' (with D. M. Armstrong) * ''Memory and Mind'' * ''Wittgenstein: The Relation of Language to Instinctive Behaviour (J.R.Jones Memorial Lecture) Publisher: University of Wales, Swansea (Dec 1981)'' * ''Thought and Knowledge: Essay by Norman Malcolm'' * '' Wittgensteinian themes: essays, 1978-1989'' (edited by G. H. von Wright) * ''Dreaming''. * ''Knowledge and Certainty: Essays and Lectures''

Essays

*
Are Necessary Propositions Really Verbal?
' (1940) in ''

Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

'', Vol. 49, No. 194 (Apr., 1940), pp. 189-203 . *
Certainty and Empirical Statements
' (1942) in Mind, Vol. 51, No. 201 (Jan., 1942), pp. 18-46. *
The Nature of Entailment
' (1940) in ''Mind'', Vol. 49, No. 195 (Jul., 1940), pp. 333-347. *
Defending Common Sense
' (1949) in ''

The Philosophical Review ''The Philosophical Review'' is a quarterly journal of philosophy edited by the faculty of the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. Since September 2006, it is published by Duke University Press. Overview The journal publishes origin ...

'', Vol. 58, No. 3 (May, 1949), pp. 201-220. *
Russell's Human Knowledge
' (1950), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan., 1950), pp. 94-106. *
Philosophy for Philosophers
' (1951) in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul., 1951), pp. 329-340. *
Knowledge and Belief
' (1952), in ''Mind'', New Series, Vol. 61, No. 242 (Apr., 1952), pp. 178-189. *
Moore's Use of "Know"
' (1953), in ''Mind'', Vol. 62, No. 246 (Apr., 1953), pp. 241-247. *
Direct Perception
' (1953), in ''

The Philosophical Quarterly ''The Philosophical Quarterly'' is a quarterly academic journal of philosophy established in 1950 and published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Scots Philosophical Club and the University of St Andrews. Since 2014 its publisher is Oxford Acade ...

'', Vol. 3, No. 13 (Oct., 1953), pp. 301-316. *
On Knowledge and Belief
' (1954) in Analysis, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Mar., 1954), pp. 94-98. *
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
' (1954) in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct., 1954), pp. 530-559. *
Dreaming and Skepticism
' (1956), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 65, No. 1 (Jan., 1956), pp. 14-37. *
Knowledge of Other Minds
' (1958) in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 55, No. 23, pp. 969-978. *
Anselm's Ontological Arguments
' (1960) in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 69, No. 1 (Jan., 1960), pp. 41-62. *
Professor Ayer on Dreaming
' (1961) in ''

The Journal of Philosophy ''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, es ...

'', Vol. 58, No. 11 (May 25, 1961), pp. 294-297. *
Scientific Materialism and the Identity Theory: Comments
' in ''The Journal of Philosophy'', Vol. 60, No. 22, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, Sixtieth Annual Meeting (Oct. 24, 1963), pp. 662-663. *
Memory and the Past
' (1963) in ''

The Monist ''The Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of philosophy. It was established in October 1890 by American publisher Edward C. Hegeler. History Init ...

'', Vol. 47, No. 2, ''Metaphysics Today'' (Winter, 1963), pp. 247-266. *
Moore and Ordinary Language
' (1964) in V.C. Chappell (ed.) ''Ordinary Language: Essays in Philosophical Method''. *
Is it a Religious Belief that ‘God Exists’?
' (1964) in John Hick (ed.) ''Faith and the Philosophers''. *
Descartes's Proof that his Essence is Thinking
' in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 74, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 315-338 *
Explaining Behaviour
' (1967), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 76, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), pp. 97-104. *
Wittgenstein's Philosophische Bermerkungen
' (1967) in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 76, No. 2 (Apr., 1967), pp. 220-229. *
The Conceivability of the Mechanism
' (1968), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 45-72. *
Memory and Representation
' (1970) in ''

Noûs ''Noûs'' is a quarterly Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy published by Wiley-Blackwell. It was established in 1967 by Hector-Neri Castañeda and is currently edited by Ernest Sosa (Rutgers University). The journal is acc ...

'', Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb., 1970), pp. 59-70. *
Thoughtless Brutes
' (1972) in '' Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association'', Vol. 46 (1972 - 1973), pp. 5-20. *
The Groundlessness of Belief
' (1975) in Stuart Brown (ed.) ''Reason and Religion''. *
'Functionalism' in Philosophy of Psychology
' (1980), ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', New Series, Vol. 80 (1979 - 1980), pp. 211-229. *
Subjectivity
' (1988) in ''

Philosophy 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 ...

'', Vol. 63, No. 244 (Apr., 1988), pp. 147-160. *
Wittgenstein on Language and Rules
' (1989) in ''Philosophy'', Vol. 64, No. 247 (Jan., 1989), pp. 5-28.

Reviews

*
The Rise of Scientific Philosophy by Hans Reichenbach
' (1951), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 60, No. 4 (Oct., 1951), pp. 582-586. *
English Philosophy Since 1900 by G. J. Warnock
' (1959), in ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 68, No. 2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 256-258. *
Meaning and Saying by Frank B. Ebersole; Language and Perception by Frank B. Ebersole
' (1980) in ''

'', Vol. 55, No. 214 (ct., 1980), pp. 555-557.
"Wittgenstein and the Simple Object
. ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

''. Vol.2, no. 3., 21 February 1980
"Wittgenstein's Bag of Raisins".
''London Review of Books''. Vol.3, No.3, 19 February 1981
"Wittgenstein's Confessions"
''London Review of Books''. Vol.. 3, No. 21, 19 November 1981

References

External links

* McDonough, Richard (2017)
"Norman Malcolm"
''

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Malcolm, Norman 1911 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American Episcopalians 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American memoirists Analytic philosophers Anglican philosophers Cornell University faculty American epistemologists Harvard University alumni Ontologists Ordinary language philosophy People from Sheridan County, Kansas American philosophers of education American philosophers of language American philosophers of mind American philosophers of religion American philosophers of social science American philosophy academics United States Navy sailors University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Wittgensteinian philosophers Philosophers of psychology Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences