- Charles A. Strong
Charles Augustus Strong (
28 November 1862 –23 January 1940 ),philosopher andpsychologist , was the eldest son of the Rev. Augustus Hopkins Strong. In 1865 the Rev. Strong moved the family toCleveland, Ohio . Here the Strong family became well-acquainted with the family ofJohn D. Rockefeller .Strong was born in
Haverhill, Massachusetts and received education at theRochester Theological Seminary , where his father was President. He entered thePhillips Academy inExeter, New Hampshire . Strong was a budding student of Latin and Greek, and he served as editor of the school paper. In July 1881 he made his way toGermany , where he studied at the Gütersloh Gymnasium. He returned to America in 1883 and entered theUniversity of Rochester , where he received an AB in 1884 and an LLD in 1919. Strong had longed to be educated atHarvard , and fulfilled this desire and was graduated in 1885 with a second AB. AtHarvard he was strongly influenced by the philosopher and psychologist, William James. He also became friends withGeorge Santayana , and together they founded the Harvard Philosophical Club.From 1885 to 1886 he returned to the
Rochester Theological Seminary , which was still headed by his father. In 1886 Strong headed toBerlin withGeorge Santayana on a James Walker Fellowship fromHarvard . Strong had lost faith in religion and turned away from the career in the clergy his father had envisioned for him. InBerlin he studied psychology, philosophy, and physiology with professorsCarl Stumpf andFriedrich Paulsen . All was not lost for his father, his other son; John Henry went on to become a prominent clergyman and a professor at theRochester Theological Seminary . On his return to America he worked part-time as an instructor in philosophy atCornell University . Strong felt the need to go to Europe again in 1889, but this time he went toParis andFreiburg as well asBerlin . In the same year he made his journey toEurope , he married Bessie, the daughter ofJohn D. Rockefeller .In 1890 Strong became a docent at
Clark University and in 1892 he was appointed associate professor of psychology at theUniversity of Chicago . Chicago's first psychological laboratories were set up by Strong in 1893. Strong moved on toColumbia University , where he lectured in psychology until 1903. From 1903 to 1910 he was a professor of psychology at Columbia.In 1903 he authored his first work, "Why the Mind Has a Body". After the death of his wife he moved to Fiesole in Italy, where he wrote The Origin of Consciousness (1918), Essays in Critical Realism (1920), "The Wisdom of the Beasts" (1921), "A Theory of Knowledge" (1923), "Essays on the Natural Origin of the Mind" (1930), and "A Creed for Sceptics" (1936).
Strong died in Villa Le Balze,
Fiesole, Italy , his villa was left to Georgetown University by his daughter,Margaret Rockefeller Strong de Larraín, Marquesa de Cuevas (1897–1985). He was a member of the Century Club of New York.References
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