- Allan Gotthelf
Allan Gotthelf (born
Brooklyn NY, 1942) isemeritus professor ofphilosophy atThe College of New Jersey and visiting professor of history and philosophy of science at theUniversity of Pittsburgh , where he has held the University's Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism since 2003 [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ] . He was one of the founders of the Ayn Rand Society (founded 1987), affiliated with theAmerican Philosophical Association , Eastern Division, and has held the position of secretary of the Society and chairman of its Steering Committee since 1990 [ [http://www.aynrandsociety.org/ Ayn Rand Society ] ] .Gotthelf received his
PhD fromColumbia University in 1975 [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ] . An essay based on his dissertation (both titled "Aristotle's Conception of Final Causality") won first prize in the Dissertation Essay Competition of "The Review of Metaphysics" and was published in that journal in December 1976. He has published many articles and reviews inancient philosophy and science, especially on the philosophical significance ofAristotle 's biological works [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ] .In the 1980s he co-organized numerous international conferences on Aristotle's biological and philosophical thought, including the 1988 NEH Summer Institute on Aristotle's Metaphysics, Biology, and Ethics (with
Michael Frede andJohn Cooper ). He edited theFestschrift in honor of David M. Balme, "Aristotle on Nature and Living Things" (Pittsburgh and Bristol, UK, 1985) and co-edited (with James G. Lennox) "Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology" (Cambridge 1987). Gotthelf has prepared for publication D.M. Balme's posthumous editions of Aristotle's "History of Animals " ("HA"): (a) the Loeb edition of Books VII-X (Harvard University Press, 1991) and (b) the Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries edition of the whole of "HA" (Cambridge, vol. 1: 2002, vol. 2: forthcoming).Gotthelf has received many honors for his work on Aristotle, including in 2004 an international conference on "Aristotle on Being, Nature, and Life", held "in celebration of his contributions to the study of classical philosophy and science"; a volume of the proceedings, edited by Robert Bolton and James G. Lennox, is forthcoming. A volume of Gotthelf's collected Aristotle papers is also forthcoming, from
Oxford University Press .He is currently doing work on Aristotle and Ayn Rand's epistemology. [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ]
Most recently, at the
University of Pittsburgh , he has organized various workshops and conferences on the nature of concepts and objectivity and the bearing of these issues on important topics inepistemology ,philosophy of science , andmetaethics .Gotthelf's Involvement with Ayn Rand and the Objectivist Movement
Gotthelf was introduced to
Ayn Rand 's thought in 1961 when, at the age of 18, he first read "Atlas Shrugged ". He attended many lecture courses and question periods at theNathaniel Branden Institute , where he worked as an usher (and in other capacities), and where in 1962 he first met Ayn Rand. For over fifteen years, he had many opportunities for sustained philosophical discussion with Rand; for instance, he was an active participant in Rand's famous 1969-71 Workshops on "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology " (expanded 2nd edn., Meridian, 1992), and subsequent smaller workshops at Rand's apartment. He was Rand's choice for indexer of her collections, "The Virtue of Selfishness " (NAL, 1964) and "" (NAL, 1966). As an undergraduate atBrooklyn College in 1963, Gotthelf founded one of the early college-based Ayn Rand clubs, under whose auspices Ayn Rand herself lectured to an audience of over 1000.Since 1964, he has spoken on Rand's thought and writings countless times at colleges, universities, and private groups in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, Europe, and Japan [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ] . He is the author of "
On Ayn Rand " (Belmont, CA , 2000) still the best-selling book in the Wadsworth Philosophers series, and co-authored (with Gregory Salmieri) the entry on Ayn Rand in the "Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers" (Thoemmes 2005) [ [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Allan Gotthelf - Department of History and Philosophy of Science ] ] .Bibliography
*Aristotle on Nature and Living Things: Philosophical and Historical Studies [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0935225005]
*Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology [http://books.google.com/books?id=j7Gu9Cb_xpgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:Allan+inauthor:Gotthelf&sig=1ptXbTq0VTeyOQz_Vj0UjT3v-Es#PPP1,M1]
*Aristotle's De Partibus Animalium I and De Generatione Animalium I [http://books.google.com/books?id=v6-rGQAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Allan+inauthor:Gotthelf]
*On Ayn Rand [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0534576257]References
External links
* [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/people/fac_pages/gotthelf.html Faculty Page] at the University of Pittsburgh, including "Curriculum vitae"
* [http://www.aynrandsociety.org/ The Ayn Rand Society] a professional society affiliated with the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division
* [http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/news/news/ConceptsObjConf2006.pdf Conference on Concepts and Objectivity] organized by Allan Gotthelf andTara Smith
* [http://www.facetsofaynrand.com/additional/ny_centenary_reminescences.html audio of Allan Gotthelf on Reminiscences of Ayn Rand]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.