James M. Edie

Infobox_Philosopher
region = Continental Philosophy
era = 20th-century philosophy
color = #B0C4DE

---

name = James M. Edie
birth = November 3, 1927
death = February 21, 1998
school_tradition = Phenomenology
main_interests = Contemporary continental philosophy, medieval philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of theatre
influences = Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, William James

James M. Edie (November 3, 1927 – February 21, 1998) was a twentieth century American philosopher.

Life and career

Edie was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He studied at Saint John’s University in Minnesota and at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm [http://www.santanselmo.org/] in Rome before obtaining his doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

Over his career, Edie became an important figure in the publicizing and development of phenomenology in North America. He first taught philosophy for two years at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. In 1961 Edie relocated to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he remained until his retirement, serving as Chair of the Philosophy Department from 1970 to 1977. In 1962, along with John Daniel Wild, William A. Earle, and others, he founded the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy ( [http://www.spep.org SPEP] ). [cite web | url = http://www.spep.org/Origins.html | title = The Origins of SPEP | accessdate = 2008-04-15 | last = Schrag | first = Calvin O] and was a member of the Executive Committee of [http://www.iapl.info The International Association for Philosophy and Literature] for five years.

Edie was fluent in at least six languages. He authored, co-authored, and edited a large corpus of academic papers and books during his career and, through his translations, introduced English readers to important works of contemporary continental philosophy.

James Edie died of cancer at his home in Sarasota, Florida. [ [http://www.hiw.kuleuven.ac.be/eng/alumni/newslet8.pdf "The Leuven Philosophy Newsletter", vol. 8, 1999] , Marquette U. Press, p. 43.] [Kenneth Seeskin, "James M. Edie 1927-1998," "Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association", vol. 72, no. 2 (Nov/1998), pp. 119-20.]

Quotations from Edie's works

On his philosophical interests

:"I studied, under my professors, a good deal of Husserl and his contemporaries but especially the "Logical Investigations". It became clear to me, then, that the principal foci of my philosophical interests were in questions of epistemology and the philosophy of logic, broadly conceived. I had no more interest in the mathematization of formal logic, the creation of an "artificial language," than Husserl himself, but the study of the necessary formal constraints on thinking (and all the usages of language) together with the questions these imply whether in synchronic fact or diachronic history has monopolized my attention, almost to the exclusion of other questions.

:"It is said that one's self-presentation is rendered more palatable if one mentions some weaknesses. Well, though I am not as apolitical as Husserl, nor, I hope, as lacking in common sense, questions of social and political philosophy, of value theory in general, and principally theoretical ethics leave me cold. I once told a colleague, who was pressing me: if I ever write on ethical theory, it will be posthumously."::— "Self-presentation: James M. Edie", "Analecta Husserliana: Vol. XXVI", pp. 208-9.

Major works

Books (authored and edited)

* cite book
others = with William Earle and John Wild
title=Christianity and Existentialism
publisher=Northwestern University Press
location = Evanston, Illinois
year = 1963 186 pages.

* cite book
title=Russian philosophy
others = Edited by James M. Edie, James P. Scanlan, and Mary-Barbara Zeldin, with the collaboration of George L. Kline
publisher=Quadrangle Press
location = Chicago
year = 1965 :* cite book
title=2nd edition
publisher=University of Tennessee Press
location = Knoxville
year = 1976 ISBN 0870492004.

* cite book
title=An invitation to phenomenology; studies in the philosophy of experience
others = Edited with an introduction by James M. Edie
publisher=Quadrangle Press
location = Chicago
year = 1965 286 pages.

* cite book
title=Phenomenology in America; studies in the philosophy of experience
others = Edited with an introduction by James M. Edie
publisher=Quadrangle Press
location = Chicago
year = 1967 309 pages.

* cite book
title=New essays in phenomenology; studies in the philosophy of experience
others = Edited with an introduction by James M. Edie
publisher=Quadrangle Press
location = Chicago
year = 1969 383 pages.

* cite book
others = James M. Edie, Francis H. Parker, Calvin O. Schrag (eds.)
title=Patterns of the life-world; essays in honor of John Wild
publisher=Northwestern University Press
location = Evanston, Illinois
year = 1970 414 pages.

* cite book
title=Speaking and meaning: the phenomenology of language
publisher=Indiana University Press
location = Bloomington
year = 1976 271 pages. ISBN 0253354250.

* cite book
title=Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology: a critical commentary
publisher=Indiana University Press
location = Bloomington
year = 1987 150 pages. ISBN 0253318548 (cloth), ISBN 0253204119 (paper).

* cite book
title=Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of language: structuralism and dialectics
publisher=Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology / University Press of America
location = Pittsburgh, PA / Washington, DC
year = 1987 104 pages. ISBN 0819166367 (trade paper), ISBN 0819166375 (paper).

* cite book
title=William James and phenomenology
publisher=Indiana University Press
location = Bloomington
year = 1987 111 pages. ISBN 0253365708 (cloth), ISBN 0253204194 (paper).

Translations

* cite book
last= Thévenaz
first= Pierre
others = translated by James M. Edie, Charles Courtney, and Paul Brockelman
title= What is phenomenology? and other essays
publisher=Quadrangle
location = Chicago
year = 1962 191 pages.

* cite book
last= Merleau-Ponty
first= Maurice
authorlink = Maurice Merleau-Ponty
others = translated by John Wild and James M. Edie
title= In praise of philosophy
publisher=Northwestern University Press
location = Evanston, Illinois
year = 1963 67 pages.

* cite book
last= Merleau-Ponty
first= Maurice
others = edited and partly translated by James M. Edie
title= The primacy of perception, and other essays on phenomenological psychology, the philosophy of art, history, and politics
publisher=Northwestern University Press
location = Evanston, Illinois
year = 1964 228 pages.

econdary References

* cite book
others = Eugene F. Kaelin and Calvin O. Schrag (eds.)
title=Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, Volume XXVI - American Phenomenology, Origins and Developments
publisher=Kluwer Academic
location = Dordrecht ; Boston
year = 1989 445 pages. ISBN 9027726906.

* cite book
others = Brice R. Wachterhauser (ed.)
title=Phenomenology and skepticism: essays in honor of James M. Edie
publisher=Northwestern University Press
location = Evanston, Illinois
year = 1996 261 pages. ISBN 0810113872 (cloth), ISBN 0810113880 (paper).

Notes

Persondata
NAME = Edie, James M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = twentieth century American philosopher, Phenomenologist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1927-11-03
PLACE OF BIRTH = Grand Forks, North Dakota
DATE OF DEATH = 1998-02-21
PLACE OF DEATH = Sarasota, Florida