Summary
John Oulton Wisdom (29 December 1908 – 30 January 1993), cousin of Cambridge professor John Wisdom (with whom he is sometimes confused[1]) was "an important contributor to philosophy and to psychoanalysis" who made "original contributions to the mind-body problem, to philosophy of science, to cybernetics, to the theory of psychosomatic disorder, and to psychoanalytic theory".[2]
J. O. Wisdom | |
|---|---|
 Wisdom pictured in 1928 after coming second in the Irish Amateur Close golfing championship | |
| Born | 29 December 1908 |
| Died | 30 January 1993 |
Life edit
Born in Dublin on 29 December 1908, J. O. Wisdom (as he was often cited) was the only child of Thomas Hume Wisdom, a brewery clerk, and his English-born wife Jane Oulton.[3]
He was educated at Earlsfort House School, also attended by Samuel Beckett,[4] and then at Trinity College Dublin, where he studied under the Hegelian scholar Henry Stewart Macran. Graduating in 1931, he continued postgraduate studies until 1933 when he received a doctoral degree for a thesis on Hegel.[5]
Wisdom was then to move to Cambridge where he encountered the analytical philosophy of G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein. His first teaching post was in Cairo, where he published The Metamorphosis of Philosophy in 1947. In 1948 he was appointed as a lecturer at the London School of Economics, (where he would meet with Karl Popper) before being appointed as a Reader in 1953, a position he retained until 1965. Wisdom also served as an editor of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science from 1952 until 1963. In the mid-sixties Wisdom would move to North America, teaching at several US universities before finally moving to Canada and to a professorship in philosophy and social science at York University, Toronto, where he remained until his retirement in 1979.[5][2]
He died at his home, Wilmont House, in Castlebridge, County Wexford, in 1993.[5][2][3]
Works edit
- Causation and the Foundations of Science (Paris, 1946).[6]
- The Metamorphosis of Philosophy (Cairo, 1947).[7]
- Foundations of Inference in Natural Science (1952).[8]
- The Unconscious Origin of Berkeley's Philosophy (1953).
- Philosophy and its Place in our Culture (1975).
- Challengeability in Modern Science (1987)[9]
- Philosophy of the Social Sciences.
- vol. i: A metascientific introduction and vol. ii: Schemata (1987), vol. iii: Groundwork for social dynamics (1993)
- Freud, Women, and Society (New Brunswick, 1992).
For complete bibliographical details see "Publications by John Oulton Wisdom" (1993).[10]
References edit
- ^ Passmore, John (1957). One Hundred Years Of Philosophy. pp. 437.
It strikes one as odd that a philosopher should be called 'Wisdom'; that two bearers of the name should be contemporary philosophers passes beyond the limits of the reasonable; that they should both be interested in psycho-analysis has produced in many minds the justifiable conviction that the two are one. But it must be none the less insisted that J. O. Wisdom of the London School of Economics ...is not identical with his cousin Professor John Wisdom of the University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c "Obituary: J. O. Wisdom". The Independent. 1993-03-04. Archived from the original on 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
- ^ a b "Wisdom, John Oulton (J. O.)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
- ^ Knowlson, James (2021-08-31). "An Interview with Professor John Oulton Wisdom". Journal of Beckett Studies. 30 (2): 219–231. doi:10.3366/jobs.2021.0342.
- ^ a b c Duddy, Thomas (2006). "Wisdom, John Oulton (1908–93)". In Grayling, A.C; Goulder, Naomi; Pyle, Andrew (eds.). The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy [edited by A.C. Grayling, Naomi Goulder, and Andrew Pyle]. Continuum. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199754694.001.0001. hdl:11693/51028. ISBN 9780199754694.
- ^ Ewing, A. C. (April 1948). "Causation and the Foundations of Science. By J. O. Wisdom. (Hermann & Co., Paris. 1946. Pp. 54.)". Philosophy. 23 (85): 171–171. doi:10.1017/S0031819100006173. ISSN 1469-817X.
- ^ [reviewed by Wilson V. H. Barnes here in Philosophy in 1948].
- ^ Synge, J. L. (1952). "Review of Foundations of Inference in Natural Science". Hermathena (80): 89–91. ISSN 0018-0750. JSTOR 23039307.
- ^ Baghramian, Maria (1988). "Review of Challengeability in modern science. Avebury Series in the Philosophy of Science". Hermathena (144): 135–138. ISSN 0018-0750. JSTOR 23042032.
- ^ "Publications by John Oulton Wisdom". Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 23 (3): 287–297. 1993. doi:10.1177/004839319302300302. ISSN 0048-3931. S2CID 220838570.
Further reading edit
- In Memoriam: Tributes. (1993). Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 23(3), 279–286.
External links edit
- Words of Wisdom: the life and work of J. O. Wisdom by C. M. Barry at Irish Philosophy