Allan Gotthelf
Encyclopedia
Allan Gotthelf is an American philosopher, and a recognized authority on the philosophies of both Aristotle
and Ayn Rand
.
from Pennsylvania State University
, and his masters and PhD
in philosophy
from Columbia University
in 1975, where he studied under professors such as the noted Aristotelian scholar John Herman Randall, Jr.
. An essay based on his doctoral 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 began his teaching career at Wesleyan University
in Connecticut.
He is an emeritus
professor of philosophy
at The College of New Jersey
, a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and visiting professor of the history
and philosophy of science
at the University of Pittsburgh
, where he has held the university's Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism
since 2003. He was one of the founders of the Ayn Rand Society (founded in 1987), affiliated with the American Philosophical Association
, Eastern Division, and has held the position of secretary of the Society and chairman of its Steering Committee since 1990.
Gotthelf has published many articles and reviews in ancient philosophy
and science
, especially on the philosophical significance of Aristotle
's scientific method
ology and biology
.
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
and John Cooper
). He edited the Festschrift
in honor of David M. Balme, Aristotle on Nature and Living Things and co-edited (with James G. Lennox
) Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology (Cambridge University Press
, 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 University Press
, 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, Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle: Essays in Honor of Allan Gotthelf, edited by James G. Lennox
and Robert Bolton, was published by Cambridge University Press
in 2010. A volume of Gotthelf's collected Aristotle papers (including four papers previously unpublished), "Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology," is forthcoming from Oxford University Press
in their prestigious Oxford Aristotle Studies series, in early 2012.
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 in epistemology, philosophy of science
, and metaethics. (See also, in the next section below, his role as editor of the Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies series.)
He is currently doing work on Aristotle
and Ayn Rand
's epistemology.
's thought in 1961 when, at the age of 18, he first read Atlas Shrugged
. He attended many lecture courses and question periods at the Nathaniel 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
, and subsequent smaller workshops at Rand's apartment. He was Rand's choice for indexer of her collections, The Virtue of Selfishness
and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal
. As an undergraduate at Brooklyn College
in 1963, Gotthelf founded one of the early college-based "Ayn Rand Clubs," under whose auspices Rand herself lectured to an audience of over 1000. It was suggestions from both Gotthelf and Leonard Peikoff
which motivated Rand to write her extended monograph on concepts, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
.
Since 1964, he has spoken on Rand's philosophy, Objectivism
, countless times at colleges, universities, and private groups throughout the U.S., Canada
, Bermuda
, Europe
, and Japan
. He is the author of On Ayn Rand
, still the best-selling book in the Wadsworth Philosophers series, and he co-authored (with Gregory Salmieri) the entry on Rand in the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers. He is co-editor (also with Salmieri) of the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell volume, Ayn Rand: A Companion to Her Works and Thought, expected out in late 2012, and has published two essays in Robert Mayhew's Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: "Galt's Speech in Five Sentences (and Forty Questions)" and "A Note on Dagny's 'Final Choice'."
As mentioned above, Gotthelf was one of the founding members of The Ayn Rand Society, and holds its highest office. He is currently the editor (with James G. Lennox as associate editor) of the series, Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The first volume, "Metaethics, Virtue, and Egoism: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics," was published in early 2011. The second volume, "Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivist Epistemology," is scheduled for publication in mid 2012. The first volume includes his essay "The Choice to Value (1990)"; the second volume leads off with his essay "Ayn Rand's Theory of Concepts: Rethinking Abstraction and Essence."
who is chosen by the Classical Studies Faculty. The winner is announced at the departmental graduation ceremony and is recognized on a permanent plaque.
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
.
Academic career
Gotthelf received his masters degree in mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
from Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
, and his masters and PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1975, where he studied under professors such as the noted Aristotelian scholar John Herman Randall, Jr.
John Herman Randall, Jr.
John Herman Randall Jr. was an American philosopher, New Thought author, and educator.-Life:Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the son of a Baptist minister, he graduated from Morris High School in New York City and obtained his A.B. from Columbia University in 1918. He obtained an A.M...
. An essay based on his doctoral dissertation (both titled Aristotle's Conception of Final Causality
Teleology
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος, telos; root: τελε-, "end, purpose...
) won first prize in the Dissertation Essay Competition of The Review of Metaphysics
Review of Metaphysics
The Review of Metaphysics is a peer reviewed academic journal of philosophy. It was founded by Paul Weiss and the first issue was published in September 1947. The journal's primary sponsor is and has been The Catholic University of America, but other major universities help sustain it.The journal...
and was published in that journal in December, 1976. He began his teaching career at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
in Connecticut.
He is an emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
professor of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton....
, a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and visiting professor of the history
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
and philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, where he has held the university's Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
since 2003. He was one of the founders of the Ayn Rand Society (founded in 1987), affiliated with the American Philosophical Association
American Philosophical Association
The American Philosophical Association is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly activity in philosophy, to facilitate the professional work...
, Eastern Division, and has held the position of secretary of the Society and chairman of its Steering Committee since 1990.
Gotthelf has published many articles and reviews in ancient philosophy
Ancient philosophy
This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the ending of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire...
and science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, especially on the philosophical significance of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
ology and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
.
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
Michael Frede
Michael Frede was a prominent professor and researcher on ancient philosophy.- Education and career :Frede earned his Ph.D...
and John Cooper
John Cooper
John Cooper may refer to:* John A. D. Cooper , American physician & educator* John B.R. Cooper , California pioneer* John Cooper, current director of the Sundance Film Festival...
). He edited the Festschrift
Festschrift
In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
in honor of David M. Balme, Aristotle on Nature and Living Things and co-edited (with James G. Lennox
James G. Lennox
James G. Lennox is a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the departments of Classics and Philosophy. He a leader in the study of Aristotelian science in light of his groundbreaking work on Aristotle's...
) Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology (Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 1987). Gotthelf has prepared for publication D.M. Balme's posthumous editions of Aristotle's History of Animals
History of Animals
History of Animals is a zoological natural history text by Aristotle.-Arabic translation:The Arabic translation of Historia Animalium comprises treatises 1-10 of the Kitāb al-Hayawān .-See also:...
(HA): (a) the Loeb edition of Books VII-X (Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
, 1991) and (b) the Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries edition of the whole of HA (Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, vol. 1: 2002, vol. 2: forthcoming).
Gotthelf has received many honors for his work on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, 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, Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle: Essays in Honor of Allan Gotthelf, edited by James G. Lennox
James G. Lennox
James G. Lennox is a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the departments of Classics and Philosophy. He a leader in the study of Aristotelian science in light of his groundbreaking work on Aristotle's...
and Robert Bolton, was published by Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
in 2010. A volume of Gotthelf's collected Aristotle papers (including four papers previously unpublished), "Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology," is forthcoming from Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
in their prestigious Oxford Aristotle Studies series, in early 2012.
Most recently, at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, he has organized various workshops and conferences on the nature of concepts and objectivity and the bearing of these issues on important topics in epistemology, philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
, and metaethics. (See also, in the next section below, his role as editor of the Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies series.)
He is currently doing work on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's epistemology.
Involvement with Ayn Rand and the Objectivist movement
Gotthelf was introduced to Ayn RandAyn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's thought in 1961 when, at the age of 18, he first read Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
. He attended many lecture courses and question periods at the Nathaniel Branden Institute
Nathaniel Branden Institute
The Nathaniel Branden Institute was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for the many Objectivist lectures and presentations across the United States of America...
, 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
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, published in 1979, is Ayn Rand's essentialised summation of the Objectivist theory of concepts and solution to the problem of universals...
, and subsequent smaller workshops at Rand's apartment. He was Rand's choice for indexer of her collections, The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism is a 1964 collection of essays and papers by Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter, except for "The Objectivist Ethics", which was a paper Rand delivered at the University of Wisconsin...
and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal
Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a collection of essays, mostly by Ayn Rand, with additional essays by her associates Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan and Robert Hessen. The book focuses on the moral nature of laissez-faire capitalism and private property...
. As an undergraduate at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1963, Gotthelf founded one of the early college-based "Ayn Rand Clubs," under whose auspices Rand herself lectured to an audience of over 1000. It was suggestions from both Gotthelf and Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Peikoff
Leonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...
which motivated Rand to write her extended monograph on concepts, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, published in 1979, is Ayn Rand's essentialised summation of the Objectivist theory of concepts and solution to the problem of universals...
.
Since 1964, he has spoken on Rand's philosophy, Objectivism
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
, countless times at colleges, universities, and private groups throughout the U.S., Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. He is the author of On Ayn Rand
On Ayn Rand
On Ayn Rand is a book about the life and thought of 20th-century philosopher Ayn Rand, written by scholar Allan Gotthelf and published in early 2000 by Wadsworth Publishing in its Wadsworth Philosophers series.- Reception :...
, still the best-selling book in the Wadsworth Philosophers series, and he co-authored (with Gregory Salmieri) the entry on Rand in the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers. He is co-editor (also with Salmieri) of the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell volume, Ayn Rand: A Companion to Her Works and Thought, expected out in late 2012, and has published two essays in Robert Mayhew's Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: "Galt's Speech in Five Sentences (and Forty Questions)" and "A Note on Dagny's 'Final Choice'."
As mentioned above, Gotthelf was one of the founding members of The Ayn Rand Society, and holds its highest office. He is currently the editor (with James G. Lennox as associate editor) of the series, Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The first volume, "Metaethics, Virtue, and Egoism: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics," was published in early 2011. The second volume, "Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivist Epistemology," is scheduled for publication in mid 2012. The first volume includes his essay "The Choice to Value (1990)"; the second volume leads off with his essay "Ayn Rand's Theory of Concepts: Rethinking Abstraction and Essence."
The Allan Gotthelf Prize
The Allan Gotthelf Prize is awarded annually to an outstanding graduating senior at The College of New JerseyThe College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton....
who is chosen by the Classical Studies Faculty. The winner is announced at the departmental graduation ceremony and is recognized on a permanent plaque.
See also
- American philosophyAmerican philosophyAmerican philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...
- AristotleAristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
- Ayn RandAyn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
- List of American philosophers
- Objectivism (disambiguation)
External links
- Faculty Page at the University of Pittsburgh, unfortunately not including Curriculum vitae
- The Ayn Rand Society a professional society affiliated with the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division
- Conference on Concepts and Objectivity organized by Allan Gotthelf and Tara Smith
- audio of Allan Gotthelf on Reminiscences of Ayn Rand