Ralph Barton Perry

Ralph Barton Perry (3 July 1876 in Poultney, Vermont - 22 January 1957 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American philosopher. He was educated at Princeton (B.A., 1896) and at Harvard (M.A., 1897; Ph.D., 1899), where, after teaching philosophy for three years at Williams and Smith colleges, he was instructor (1902-05), assistant professor (1905-13), full professor (1913-30) and Edgar Pierce professor of philosophy (1930-46). He was president of the American Philosophical Association's eastern division in the year 1920-21. [cite web| url = http://www.pragmatism.org/dmap/apa_presidents.htm | title = APA Presidents | accessdate = 2008-10-01]

A pupil of William James, whose "Essays in Radical Empiricism" he edited (1912), Perry became one of the leaders of the New Realism movement. Perry argued for a naturalistic theory of value and a New Realist theory of perception and knowledge. He wrote a celebrated biography of William James, which won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and proceeded to a revision of his critical approach to natural knowledge. An active member among a group of American New Realist philosophers, he elaborated around 1910 the program of new realism. However, he soon dissented from moral and spiritual ontology, and turned to a philosophy of disillusionment. Perry was an advocate of a militant democracy: in his words "total but not totalitarian". In 1946-8 he delivered in Glasgow his Gifford Lectures, titled "Realms of Value".

References

Works

*"The Approach to Philosophy", (1905), New York, Chicago and Boston: Charles Scribner's Sons
*"The Moral Economy", (1909), New York: Charles Scribner's Son
*"Present Philosophical Tendencies: A Critical Survey of Naturalism, Idealism, Pragmatism, and Realism, together with a Synopsis of the Philosophy of William James", (1912), New York:Longmans, Green & Co.
*Holt, EB; Marvin, WT; Montague, WP; Perry, RB; Pitkin, WB; Spaulding, EG, "The New Realism: Cooperative Studies in Philosophy", (1912), New York: The Macmillan Company
*"The Free Man and the Soldier", (1916), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
*"The Present Conflict of Ideals: A Study of the Philosophical Background of the World War", (1918), New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
*"Annotated Bibliography of the Writings of William James", (1920), Longmans, Green & Co.
*"The Plattsburg movement: A Chapter of America's Participation in the World War" (1921), New York: E.P. Dutton & company
*"A Modernist View of National Ideals" (1926) Berkeley: University of California Press [Howison Lecture, 1925]
*"General Theory of Value" (1926)
*"The Hope for Immortality" (1935)
*"The Thought and Character of William James" (1935)
*"Plea for an Age Movement" (1942) New York: The Vanguard Press [Talk at 1941 Princeton and Harvard Reunions]
*"Puritanism and Democracy", (1944)
*"Characteristically American: Five Lectures Delivered on the William W. Cook Foundation at the University of Michigan, November-December 1948", (1949), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949
*"Realms of Value", (1954), Harvard University Press [Based on Gifford Lectures]
*"The Humanity of Man", (1956), New York: George Braziller

External links

* [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Author.asp?AuthorID=137 Biography] , at the Gifford Lectures site
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A(ralph%20barton%20perry) Works by Perry] , in the Internet Archive
*
* [http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/inventory5.html Some works by and about Perry] , in the Mead Project website
* [http://ditext.com/perry/perry.html "PROF. ROYCE'S REFUTATION OF REALISM AND PLURALISM"] , The Monist 12 (1901-2): 446-458.
* [http://fair-use.org/the-journal-of-philosophy/1904/02/04/reviews/the-refutation-of-idealism Review: The Refutation of Idealism] , Reviews, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. I, No. 3 (Feb. 4, 1904), 76-77.
* [http://ditext.com/perry/ego.html THE EGO-CENTRIC PREDICAMENT] , Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods 7 (1910): 5-14
* [http://fair-use.org/william-james/essays-in-radical-empiricism/preface Editor’s Preface] , "Essays in Radical Empiricism" (1912) by William James
* "Lectures on the Harvard Classics". The Harvard Classics, Volume LI (1914):
** [http://www.bartleby.com/60/141.html Philosophy: I. General Introduction]
** [http://www.bartleby.com/60/143.html Philosophy: III. The Rise of Modern Philosophy]
** [http://www.bartleby.com/60/144.html Philosophy: IV. Introduction to Kant]
** [http://www.bartleby.com/60/221.html Religion: I. General Introduction]
* [http://fair-use.org/international-journal-of-ethics/1915/04/non-resistance-and-the-present-war Non-Resistance and the Present War--A Reply to Mr. Russell] , International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 25 No. 3 (April, 1915). 307–316.