Horace Kallen Explained

Horace M. Kallen
Birth Date:August 11, 1882
Birth Place:Bernstadt, Silesia, Prussia
Death Place:Palm Beach, Florida, US
Nationality:American
Alma Mater:Harvard University
Thesis Title:Notes on the Nature of Truth
Thesis Url:https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038588270203941/catalog
Thesis Year:1908
Doctoral Advisor:William James
Influences:George Santayana

Horace Meyer Kallen (August 11, 1882 – February 16, 1974) was a German-born American philosopher who supported pluralism and Zionism.

Biography

Horace Meyer Kallen was born on August 11, 1882, in the town of Bernstadt, Prussian Silesia (now Bierutów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland). His parents were Jacob David Kallen, an Orthodox rabbi, and Esther Rebecca Glazier. In 1887, the family emigrated to the United States. Kallen studied philosophy at Harvard University under George Santayana; in 1903, he received a BA magna cum laude.[1]

That same year, Kallen was personally hired by future American President Woodrow Wilson, then Princeton University's president, to become the first Jew to ever teach at the university.[2] But after teaching English at Princeton for two years, his contract was not renewed, and he returned to Harvard for graduate study and worked as Santayana's assistant.[3] In 1908, Kallen received his doctorate and was awarded a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship to study at Oxford University.[4] He was also a lifetime friend of Alain Locke, whom he met at Harvard and who was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar; and would remain the only one until the 1960s.

He lectured in philosophy at Harvard from his graduation until 1911, occasionally working as a logic instructor at Clark College in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1911, he moved to teach philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until 1918, when he was named a professor at The New School in New York City as a founding member, where he remained for the rest of his career.[5] By 1933, Kallen and his colleague Sidney Hook were serving on the ACLU's academic freedom committee.[6]

A pluralist, Kallen opposed any oversimplification of philosophical and vital problems. According to Kallen, denying complications and difficulties is to multiply them, as much as to deny reality to evil would aggravate evil. Kallen advanced the ideal that cultural diversity and national pride were compatible with each other and that ethnic and racial diversity strengthened America. Kallen is credited with coining the term cultural pluralism.[7]

He was acquainted with William James, whose last unfinished book he edited. In 1939 he became acquainted with Immanuel Velikovsky and became a lifelong friend, informal literary advisor, mentor, and advocate.[8] He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Western Philosophical Society, the Society for Psychical Research, the Zionist Organization of America, the Palestine Development Council, and the National Council of the League of Nations Association. He served on congressional committees on international peace and was a part of many think tanks and study groups on questions ranging from philosophy and law to labor relations.

Kallen married Rachel Oatman van Arsdale in 1926.[8] He died, aged 91, on February 16, 1974, in Palm Beach, Florida.[1]

Blasphemy case

In 1928, Kallen spoke at a memorial service for Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, during which he stated that if Sacco and Vanzetti had been anarchists, then so was Jesus. An arrest warrant was subsequently filed against him on charges of blasphemy under a 17th-century law;[9] however, a judge ruled that his statement had not been criminal.[10]

Selected works

Books include:

Articles include:

Bibliography:See special "Symposium on Horace M. Kallen" in Modern Judaism, Vol. 4, No. 2. (May, 1984)

See also

Further reading

External links

RG 317; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY.

Notes and References

  1. News: Dr. Horace Kallen, Philosopher, Dies. 66. 24 January 2018. The New York Times. February 17, 1974.
  2. Book: Berg, A. Scott. Wilson. 2013. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York, NY. 978-0-399-15921-3. 158.
  3. Lamont, C., ed. Dialogue on George Santayana. New York: Horizon Press (1959) 13-17.
  4. [Louis Menand]
  5. Gilbert, James (1997). Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science, University of Chicago Press. . Chap. 8, Two Men of Science, p. 175, namely Harlow Shapley and Kallen.
  6. News: Oppose Teachers' Oath. New York Times. N3. 9 April 1933. 14 October 2018.
  7. Toll, William (1997). "Horace M. Kallen: Pluralism and American Jewish Identity." American Jewish History 85(1): 57–74; here: 58 and 74 (footnote). . .
  8. Gilbert, James (1997). Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science, University of Chicago Press. . Chap. 8, Two Men of Science, pp. 177-181, namely Harlow Shapley and Kallen.
  9. "MAY DROP CASE ON BLASPHEMY Warrant Held Up, Likely to Be Quashed", in The Pittsburgh Press, August 19, 1928; p. 6; via newspapers.com.
  10. "Culture: September 5, 2003: 75 Years Ago". The Forward. September 5, 2003. Retrieved 15 April 2023.

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