George Boas

George Boas
George Boas
Born	28 August 1891; Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	17 March 1980 (aged 88); Towson, Maryland, U.S.
Education	Brown University (BA, MA); University of California, Berkeley (PhD);
Spouse	Simone Brangier Boas
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Thesis	An Analysis of Certain Theories of Truth (1917)
Doctoral advisor	C. I. Lewis[speculation?]
Other academic advisors	Josiah Royce (M.A.)
Doctoral students	Norman Kretzmann

George Boas (/ˈboʊæz/; 28 August 1891 – 17 March 1980) was a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

Education

Boas received his education at Brown University, obtaining both a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy there, after which he studied shortly at Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1917.

Career

In 1921, Boas was hired at Johns Hopkins by Professor Arthur Oncken Lovejoy as an historian of philosophy. The same year Boas married sculptor Simone Brangier Boas. Boas' tenure at Hopkins was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a Commander in the Naval Reserve. One of his undergraduate students was Alger Hiss, with whom he kept in contact.^[4]

Boas was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1950.^[5]

He retired from the school in 1956, continuing his scholarly career with a fellowship at the Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University^[6] and as visiting Andrew W. Mellon chair at the University of Pittsburgh. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957.^[7]

Major works

The Major Traditions of European Philosophy (1929)
A Primer for Critics (1937)
The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, translation of the original work (1950)
Dominant Themes in Modern Philosophy (1957)
The Inquiring Mind (1959)
Rationalism in Greek Philosophy (1961)
The Limits of Reason Harper & Brothers (1961)
The Heaven of Invention (1962)
The cult of childhood. London, Warburg Institute (1966)
Vox Populi (1969)
The History of Ideas: An Introduction (1969)
Wingless Pegasus A Handbook for Critics (1950)
What is a Picture, with Harold Wrenn (1964)

References

^ Hull, Richard T. (2013). "Biography: George Boas". The American Philosophical Association Centennial Series: 75–77. doi:10.5840/apapa2013420. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
^ Zupko, Jack (1999). "Norman Kretzmann (1928-1998)". Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter. 1 (1): 213–217. doi:10.1075/bpjam.4.13zup. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
^ "George Boas". Archived from the original on 2020-11-28. Between the 1930s and 1970s, he published several works that he himself acknowledged were heavily influenced by A.O. Lovejoy.
^ Hiss, Tony (1997). The View from Alger's Window.
^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
^ Guide to the Center for Advanced Studies Records, 1958 - 1969 Archived 2017-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
^ "George Boas". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 9 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-02-22.