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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- Memorial Minute
With the death of Nelson Goodman last fall, the world lost one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. In incisively original works, Goodman radically revised fundamental conceptions in applied logic, philosophy of science, aesthetics, theory of symbols, epistemology and metaphysics. It is safe to say that none of these areas can now be studied profitably without attention to his penetrating contributions. Goodman was born on August 7, 1906 in Somerville, Mass., and died in Needham, Mass., on November 25, 1998. He received the Bachelor of Science degree in 1928 from Harvard and the Ph.D. from Harvard in 1941. From 1929 to 1940, he directed the Walker-Goodman Art Gallery in Boston. This detour in his career reflected both his passion for art and the difficulties those of Jewish parentage then faced in academia. At the gallery he met his future wife, Katharine Sturgis, who had come to propose an exhibition of her paintings. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the United States Army. He taught at Tufts University for one year before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he served from 1946 to 1964. From 1964 to 1967 he was the Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University and from 1968 to 1977, he was Professor of Philosophy at Harvard. Goodman’s first major work, the monumental The Structure of Appearance, uses the devices of the newly developed logic to construct a phenomenalist system with qualia as atoms. The book provides a detailed exposition and critique of Rudolf Carnap’s Der Logische Aufbau der Welt, and offers acute analyses of phenomenal size, shape, order, measure and time, as well as a new conception of definition in applied logical systems, and a general defense of nominalism. Goodman’s second major work, Fact, Fiction and Forecast, revolutionizes the theory of induction by disproving the prevalent Humean view that predictions are grounded in conformity with regularities that have obtained in the past. Suppose, Goodman argues, that all emeralds examined to date are green; we then predict the next one will also be green, since such prediction conforms to the confirmed regularity that all emeralds are green. Consider now the predicate "grue," applicable to everything examined before present time t if and only if green but to everything else if and only if blue. Then all hitherto examined emeralds are grue as well as green and the next emerald to be examined is predicted to be blue with as much basis in past experience as it is predicted to be green. "Regularities," says Goodman, "are where you find them, and you can find them anywhere." How to distinguish valid predictions from the rest is what he called the "New Riddle of Induction." His proposed solution is that the features underlying valid predictions are those "for which we have adopted predicates that we have habitually projected." Goodman’s third major work, Languages of Art, offers a new theory of symbols encompassing, but ranging far beyond aesthetics to deal not only with the arts, but also with the sciences and everyday language, labels and samples. He emphasizes cognitive function and therefore devises a general theory characterizing notations, sketches, scripts and paintings. He offers an account of forgery of works of art, a theory of metaphor, a treatment of fictional expressions and a comprehensive interpretation of reference including not only denotation but also exemplification and expression. His fourth major work, Ways of Worldmaking, treats of versions, including depictions as well as descriptions, works of art as well as works of science. He argues that there are conflicting right world-versions rather than a single world underlying the rightness of all. He takes as his adversary "the monopolistic materialist or physicalist who maintains that one system, physics, is preeminent and all-inclusive." Goodman insists that "standards different from yet no less exacting than those applied in science are appropriate for appraising what is conveyed in perceptual or pictorial or literary versions." His doctrine, "irrealism," maintains that "There are many worlds if any," and that "we make worlds by making versions." Yet, insisting that there are clear distinctions between right and wrong versions, his relativism must be sharply distinguished not only from nihilism, but also from faddish subjectivism and cultural relativism. Goodman’s many other publications include Problems and Projects, Of Mind and Other Matters and Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences (with C. Z. Elgin) as well as numerous papers. In addition to his path-breaking philosophical researches, he was an avid and eclectic art collector. He was generous in loaning art works, and donated many of them to museums, including the Fogg. His gift of his collection of antiquities to Harvard’s Sackler Museum in 1995 greatly enriched its holdings of Egyptian, Near Eastern and Cycladic art. He founded and directed the Harvard Summer Dance Program and Project Zero, a research program in arts education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. He directed a number of multi-media works including Hockey Seen, Rabbit Run and Variations: An Illustrated Lecture Concert. Nelson notoriously did not suffer fools gladly. He had no use for small talk and often appeared acerbic and off-putting, projecting an aura of supreme self-confidence and utter impatience with everything beyond his current research projects. He was an unusually meticulous and demanding teacher. Yet his teaching was, for many students, inspiring and revelatory. He had a lively wit, evidenced in his writings, as well as a soft side, which showed itself in his many kindnesses to students and friends, his lifelong devotion to his wife Kay, and his constant support of efforts to create new opportunities for artists and students of the arts. Nelson was a generous supporter of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, funding projects to rescue animals from the volcanic eruption in Montserrat and the wars in Bosnia and Kuwait. He and Kay always had a dog; he dedicated Mind and Other Matters to Kinky, Snubby, Tweedledee, Randy, Angie, Debby, Susan and Trushka, for help and hindrance. Nelson Goodman was a loyal friend, a powerful teacher, a vigorous thinker and a dedicated lover of philosophy and the arts. He will be remembered as a pioneering philosophical genius of the twentieth century whose thought altered the contours of the subject and set a demanding ideal for later generations to pursue. Catherine Z. Elgin Israel Scheffler Hilary Putnam, Chair
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |