Sidney Morgenbesser (September 22, 1921 – August 1, 2004) was a Jewish American philosopher and professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

. He wrote little but is remembered by many for his philosophical witticisms.

Life and career

Sidney Morgenbesser was born on September 22, 1921, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and raised in Manhattan's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...

.''

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'',
Professor Sidney Morgenbesser: Philosopher celebrated for his withering New York Jewish humour
6 August 2004 Morgenbesser undertook philosophical study at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and rabbinical study at the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studi ...

. He then pursued graduate study in philosophy at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

. There he obtained his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

in 1950 and, with a thesis titled ''Theories And Schemata In The Social Sciences,'' his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

in 1956.Schwartz, Robert (2005)
"Sidney Morgenbesser (1921—2004)"
In Shook, John R. (ed).
The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers
' (2005) , republished in Shook, John R. (ed).
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America: From 1600 to the Present
' (2016) . It was also at Pennsylvania, Morgenbesser records, that he would have his first job teaching philosophy. Morgenbesser taught at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

and then

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

. He then took a position at

in 1954. GARY SHAPIRO ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

''; (October 26, 2004)
Columbia Pays Final Respects To Professor Sidney Morgenbesser
' rchived by Wayback Machine [March 20, 2004/ref> He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1963, and by 1966 he was made a full professor at Columbia. He was visiting professor at the Rockefeller University in 1967—1968 and in 1975 was named the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia. This position he held until retirement. Morgenbesser's areas of expertise included the

philosophy of social science The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities be ...

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

, and the history of

American Pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Pr ...

. He founded the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs along with G.A. Cohen,

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...

and others. Morgenbesser appeared on in an interview by

Bryan Magee Bryan Edgar Magee (; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician and author, best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience. Early life Born of working-class parents in Hoxton, London, in 1930, ...

on the topic of American Pragmatism in 1987 that is available on YouTube. He died on 1 August 2004 at

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center Mount Sinai Morningside, formerly known as Mount Sinai St. Luke's, is a teaching hospital located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the M ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

at the age of 82.

Influence

Morgenbesser was known particularly for his sharp witticisms and humor which often penetrated to the heart of the philosophical issue at hand, on which account ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' dubbed him the "Sidewalk

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

." According to one anecdote, when

J. L. Austin John Langshaw Austin (26 March 1911 – 8 February 1960) was a British philosopher of language and leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy, perhaps best known for developing the theory of speech acts. Austin pointed out that we use l ...

claimed that, although a

double negative A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. Multiple negation is the more general term referring to the occurrence of more than one negative in a clause. In some languages, d ...

often implies a positive meaning (''e.g.'', "he is not unlike his sister"), there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative, Morgenbesser retorted: "Yeah, yeah."The Times,
Sidney Morgenbesser: Erudite and influential American linguistic philosopher with the analytical acuity of Spinoza and the blunt wit of Groucho Marx
', September 8, 2004 In another commonly reported story, Morgenbesser was asked by a student whether he agreed with

Chairman Mao Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PR ...

's view that a statement can be both true and false at the same time, to which Morgenbesser replied "Well, I do and I don't." Another anecdote is given as follows by the ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

'': Morgenbesser published little and established no school, but was revered for his extraordinary intelligence and moral seriousness. He was a famously influential teacher; his former students included

Jerry Fodor Jerry Alan Fodor (; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of many crucial works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the mo ...

Raymond Geuss Raymond Geuss, FBA (; born 1946) is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy. He is currently Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge. Geuss is primarily known for three ...

Alvin Goldman Alvin Ira Goldman (born 1938) is an American philosopher who is Emeritus Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a leading figure in epistemology. Education and career Goldman e ...

Daniel M. Hausman Daniel M. Hausman (born March 27, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American philosopher. His research has focussed primarily on methodological, metaphysical, and ethical issues at the boundaries between economics and philosophy. He is currently ...

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University,

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

Gideon Rosen Gideon Rosen (born 1962) is an American philosopher. He is a Stuart Professor of Philosophy and the chair of the philosophy department at Princeton University, where he specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics. Educ ...

Mark Steiner Mark Steiner (May 6, 1942 – April 6, 2020) was an American-born Israeli professor of philosophy. He taught philosophy of mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Steiner died after contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-1 ...

, and

Michael Stocker Michael Adam Gerber Stocker is an American philosopher and Irwin & Marjorie Guttag Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Syracuse University. He is known for his works on ethics. Stocker is the author of the seminal paper The Schizoph ...

. In 1967, Morgenbesser signed a letter declaring his intention to refuse to pay taxes in protest against the U.S.

war in Vietnam The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and urging other people to also take this stand."An Open Letter
archived at Horowitz Transaction Publishers Archive
/ref>

Works

Books, (co-)edited * (1960) with

Arthur Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for ''The Nation'' and for his work in philosophi ...

reface by Ernest Nagel">Ernest_Nagel.html" ;"title="reface by Ernest Nagel">reface by Ernest Nagel ''Philosophy of Science'' (New York). * (1962) with James Walsh, ''Free Will,'' (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,). *(1967) ''Philosophy of Science Today'', US: Basic Books Inc. *(1969) with Patrick Suppes and Morton White, ''iarchive:philosophyscienc0000unse c1j2/page/n5/mode/2up, Philosophy, Science, and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernest Nagel'' *(1974) with Virginia Held and

, '' Philosophy, Morality, and International Affairs: essays edited for the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs''. New York: Oxford University Press. . *(1977) ''Dewey and His Critics: Essays from the Journal of Philosophy'' (New York). Select articles, book chapters (co-)authored *“The Decline of Religious Liberalism,” ''The Reconstructionist'' 19 (1953): 17–24.
"On the Justification of Beliefs and Attitudes."
''

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, e ...

'', vol. 51, no. 20, 1954, pp. 565–576
"Character and Free Will,"
with

, ''The Journal of Philosophy,'' Vol. 54, No. 16 (Aug. 1, 1957), pp. 493–505
"Approaches to Ethical Objectivity,"
''Educational Theory'' 7 (1957): 180–86. * “Social Inquiry and Moral Judgement,” in ''Philosophy and Education'', ed. Israel Scheffler (1958): 180–200.
“Role and Status of Anthropological Theories,”
''Science'' 128 (1958): 72–9. * “The Deductive Model and Its Qualifications,” in ''Induction: Some Current Issues'', ed. Henry Kyburg and Ernest Nagel (1963), pp. 169–80.
“Perception: Cause and Achievement,”
in ''Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science'', ed. Marx Wartofsky (1963), pp. 206–12.
"Belief and Disposition,"
with Isaac Levi ''

American Philosophical Quarterly The ''American Philosophical Quarterly'' (APQ) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering philosophy. It was established in 1964 by Nicholas Rescher and is published quarterly by University of Illinois Press under license with North American Phi ...

'', vol. 1, no. 3, 1964, pp. 221–232.
“Is It Science?”
''

Social Research Social research is a research conducted by social scientists following a systematic plan. Social research methodologies can be classified as quantitative and qualitative. * Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable ...

'' 33 (1966): 255–71. * “The Realist-instrumentalist Controversy,” in ''Philosophy, Science and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernest Nagel'' (1969), pp. 200–18.
“Imperialism: Some Preliminary Distinctions
” ''

Philosophy & Public Affairs ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes philosophical articles on legal, social, and political issues. The journal was established in 1972 under the sponsorship of P ...

'' 3 (1973): 3–44. * “Experimentation and Consent: A Note,” in ''Philosophical Medical Ethics: Its Nature and Significance'' ed. Stuart Spicker and H. Tristam Engelhardt (1977), pp. 97–110.
“Picking and Choosing,”
with E. Ullman-Marglit, ''Social Research'' 44 (1977): 757–85.
“The Questions of Isaiah Berlin,”
with J. Lieberson, ''

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'' 27 (1980): 38–42. For a more complete record of publications see "Sidney Morgenbesser: A Bibliography" in the below. Festschrift * '' How Many Questions?: Essays in Honour of Sidney Morgenbesser'', (eds.) Leigh S. Cauman, Isaac Levi, Charles D. Parsons and Robert Schwartz (1983) Misak, Cheryl (January 1985). '' "Leigh S. Cauman, Isaac Levi, Charles D. Parsons and Robert Schwartz, eds. 'How Many Questions?: Essays in Honour of Sidney Morgenbesser.'"'' ''Philosophy In Review''. v.5, no.1: 7–9. eview hosted at Internet Archive">Internet_Archive.html" ;"title="eview hosted at Internet Archive">eview hosted at Internet Archive/ref>

References

External links

The Witty Professor
NPR *''Columbia News'
death notice
(archived) *''Columbia College Today

' - memoirs by David Albert, Arthur C. Danto and Mark Steiner (also archived

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)
Sidney Morgenbesser

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Sidney, by Leon Wieseltier
''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

''
Sidney Morgenbesser interviewed
by

on American Pragmatism (Video). {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgenbesser, Sidney 1921 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century atheists 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century atheists American anti–Vietnam War activists Jewish American atheists American cultural critics American ethicists American logicians American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American philosophy academics American political philosophers American social commentators American tax resisters Aphorists Atheist philosophers Columbia University faculty Epistemologists Historians of philosophy Humor researchers Irony theorists Jewish philosophers Metaphysicians Moral philosophers Ontologists Philosophers of culture Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of history Philosophers of language Philosophers of logic Philosophers of mind Philosophers of religion Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophy writers Probability theorists Rhetoric theorists Social critics Social philosophers Trope theorists Writers about activism and social change