Lewis White Beck (September 26, 1913 – June 7, 1997) was an American philosopher and scholar of German philosophy specializing in German idealism at the University of Rochester. As Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, he achieved international recognition for encouraging collaborative research by scholars within the United States and Germany into the philosophy of Immanuel Kant during the post-World War II era. Beck also translated several of Kant's works from German, including the Critique of Practical Reason, and authored Studies in the Philosophy of Kant (1965).
Biography Early life Born in Griffin, Georgia, Beck was the youngest of four children in a family raised by Erasmus W. Beck and Inez H. Beck. His siblings included: Gladys H. Beck, Edwin H. Beck and Sarah A Beck. His father was employed as both an engineer and a sales representative.
In his youth, Beck exhibited a natural talent for philosophical discourse and repeatedly raised questions related to the famous Scopes trial. Much to his delight, he was formally introduced to the subject of philosophy by his sister who provided him with a copy of Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy at the age of fourteen. This subsequently inspired him to investigate the scientific writings of Thomas Henry Huxley and to acquire employment as a "lab assistant" while enrolled in high school.
Beck's passion for dabbling in the synthesis of organic compounds after hours attracted the attention of his mentors and he was excused from studying introductory chemistry courses upon being enrolled at Emory University. Beck's performance in the quantitative chemistry lab was hindered, however, by an undiagnosed case of color blindness which he successfully concealed. Nevertheless, his perseverance was rewarded and by the conclusion of his junior year he was honored with an unusual admission to an honorary fraternity for chemists.
Beck already suspected that his affliction might prove to be a dangerous hindrance to his aspiration of becoming a professional chemist. However, as Beck soon attended a philosophical lecture by Leroy Loemker on "The Limits of Scientific Concepts" which was based upon the writings of Heinrich Rickert and Ernst Cassirer. Beck was captivated by the prospect of conducting "gedankenexperiments" without toiling in a dangerous laboratory. He immediately convinced Loemker to take on the monumental task of tutoring him in philosophy during his junior year so that he could change his major before graduating. One year later, Beck entered graduate school and remained forever grateful to Loemker for his guidance and personal interest in Beck's aspiration to join the ranks of "philosophic workmen".Falling in Love With Wisdom, ed. by Karnos, David D. and Shoemaker, Robert G., Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, pp. 13–15: "How I became Almost a Philosopher" by Lewis White Beck.
Beck received his bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University in 1934, his master's degree from Duke University in 1935, and his doctoral degree from Duke University in 1937. His dissertation was entitled: "Synopsis: A Study in the Theory of Knowledge.
Academic career Before moving to Rochester, Beck was an international student and a Rosenwald Fund Fellow at the University of Berlin (1937–38; an interview about his experiences there appeared in The Atlanta Constitution, September 18, 1938),The Atlanta Constitution. September 18, 1938 p. 44 Lewis Beck on Atlanta Journal Constitution Archive at ajc.newspapers.com an instructor at Emory University (1938–41),The Atlanta Constitution. July 25, 1941 p. 25 Lewis White Beck on The Atlanta Journal Constitution Archive at ajc.newspapers.com Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware (1941–48), and associate professor at Lehigh University (1946–48), eventually becoming professor (1948–49).
Beck joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in 1949 and served as Chairman of its Department of Philosophy from 1949 to 1966. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School (1952-1956) as well as the Dean of the Graduate School (1956–1957) where he helped to raise international recognition for the PhD. program in Philosophy. During this time he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Philosophy (1957). He is credited with assisting his colleague Colin Murray Turbayne in his work The Myth of Metaphor (1962).The Myth of Metaphor. Turbayne, Colin Murray. Yale University Press London (1962) pp. 7 Introduction on hathitrust.org Subsequently, he collaborated with his colleague Robert L. Holmes in the publication of a comprehensive introduction to the study of philosophy, Philosophical Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy (1968)). In 1970 he also collaborated with the Kantian scholar Gottfried Martin at the University of Bonn to organize the first International Kant Congress to be hosted in the United States and helped to established an enduring close collaboration between Kantian scholars in both Germany and America. Cornell University's Society for the Humanities invited Beck to present his lecture "What Have We Learned from Kant?" at a colloquium in 1981, commemorating the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.Self and Nature in Kant's Philosophy Allen W. Woods Ed. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1984 Preface "What Have We Learned from Kant?" by Lewis White Beck on dokumen.pub
In 1962 he was appointed as the Burbank Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and subsequently Professor Emeritus in 1979. In 1962 he became the first recipient of the University's Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He was subsequently elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963 and the American Council of Learned Societies in 1964. From 1970 to 1975, Beck also served on the National Endowment for the Humanities Council. During this time he also served as a member of the board of directors for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1970–1978).Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 71, No. 5 (May, 1998), " Memorial Minutes: Lewis White Beck 1913-1997 pp. 135-136 Lewis White Beck on JSTOR.org In addition, he was a President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association.
During the course of his long academic career, Beck also held appointments as a visiting lecturer at several leading academic research centers including: Columbia University (1950), George Washington University, the University of Minnesota (1953), the University of California at Berkeley (1973), Yale University (1974) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (1982–1983). In addition, he received honorary degrees from Hamilton College, Emory University and the University of Tubingen.
In addition to his teaching activities, Beck also served on the editorial board of several leading philosophical research journals including: the Journal of the History of Ideas and Kantian-Studien. Over the years he also served on the editorial board of the journal The Monist which also featured his work.Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. "Recent Publications" Vol 22, No. 3 (March 1962) pp. 443–447 "The Monist – editor Lewis White Beck" on jstor.orgThe Monist publisher of works by Lewis White Beck on JSTOR.orgThe Monist "Introduction and Bibliography" Lewis White Beck. Volume 53, issue 4, 1 October 1969 p. 523-531 Lewis White Beck on academic.oup.com His original research into the philosophy of Immanuel Kant was also published within the authoritative journal Kant-Studien in both the German and English languages.Publications in the journal Kant-Studien by Lewis White Beck on (Veröffentlichungen in der Zeitschrift Kant-Studien von Lewis White Beck an) degruyterbrill.com In addition, in 1970 he served as editor of the Proceedings of the Third International Kant Congress. In 1985 he also contributed to the formation of the North American Kantian Society.
Over the years, Beck was praised by his students for his charm and wit. Even after his formal retirement in 1979 he continued to meet with informal gatherings of aspiring young scholars in an effort to share his unique insights into Kant's works until 1996. Always humble, Beck was often observed to joke that his prize for an award in teaching excellence was rejected as "nontaxable" by the Internal Revenue Service because it was more appropriately categorized as "unearned" income.
Included among Beck's notable students are Professor Emeritus Predrag Cicovaki at the College of the Holy Cross, who completed his dissertation Kant on the Possibility of Empirical Cognition under Beck's guidance at the University of Rochester in 1991.Kant on the Possibility of Empirical Cognition - Dissertation by Predrag Cicovacki University of Rochester (1991) on philpapers.orgCollege of the Holy Cross - Predrag Cicovacki Professor Emeritus Biography on holycross.edu
Academic work Immanuel Kant Beck is most noted for his research into the collective writings of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Included among his publications is a translation of Kant's extensive "Critique of Pure Reason" in 1949. He also achieved widespread national and international recognition within academic circles for his scholarship, commentary and encyclopedic knowledge of Kant's philosophical works. His comprehensive work, A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1960) was praised by Professor A. R. C. Duncan at Queen's University as "an unquestionably first-rate piece of Kantian scholarship which ranks along with the great German, French, and British commentaries on Kant."The Philosophical Review, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct. 1961) pp. 560-562 Duke University Press "A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason". Book review by A. R. C. Duncan https://www.jstor.org/stable/2183616 on JSTOR.org In addition, he has been cited in Kant-Studien as one of the first scholars in the Anglo-Saxon tradition to compile a comprehensive review of early German philosophy before Kant and clarifying Kant's work within such a historical context.
In the course of his exhaustive commentaries, Beck shared several noteworthy insights into Kant's philosophical thoughts. While revisiting Kant's distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" truths and his concept of the "synthetic a priori," Beck attempted to clarify Kant's reasoning by exploring whether synthetic judgements should be made analytic, as well as whether Kant incorrectly identified some "contingent judgements" as "necessary judgements". He further observed that Kant's utilization of the term "synthetic" appears to convey different meanings in Kant's writings on transcendental logic as compared to his writings on the theory of general logic. Beck observed further that this divergence in meaning accounts for the unfortunate confusion in the minds of many students who explore translations of Kant's works from the original German into English.
Beck also asserted that Kant's Critique of Practical Reason has been largely neglected by modern readers and sometimes supplanted in the minds of many scholars by the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. He claimed that a complete understanding of Kant's moral philosophy is most easily attained by reviewing Kant's "second critique" which puts forth an analysis of the concepts of both freedom and practical reason. In his A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1961) Beck asserts that Kant's "second critique" serves to weave these divers strands into a unified pattern for his theory on moral authority in general.A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason Beck, Lewis White. The University of Chicago Press, London, 1960, p. v–viii (Foreword) on archive.org