Charles W. Morris - Teaching and The Unity of Science Movement

Teaching and The Unity of Science Movement

Morris was an instructor of philosophy for six years between 1925-1931 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. After leaving Rice, he was associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago from 1931-1947. Morris became a lecturing professor at Chicago in 1948, occupying the position until 1958 when he received an offer for a special appointment as a Research Professor at the University of Florida, where he remained until his death.

During his time at Rice University, Morris wrote and defended his philosophical perspective known as neo-pragmatism. He also worked on and published Six Theories of Mind. At the end of his term at Rice, Morris returned to the University of Chicago. In the early 1930s, the University of Chicago's philosophy department was unstable, but in the midst of change and difficult economic times, Morris felt that philosophy would serve as a torch that would light the way to saving world civilization. Morris had hoped to create an institute of philosophy at the University of Chicago, but his efforts to convince the university president of such a venture were unsuccessful.

While on sabbatical from the University of Chicago in 1934, Morris traveled abroad, visiting Europe and meeting working philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and members of the Vienna Circle like Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, and Moritz Schlick. Morris was greatly impressed with the logical positivist (logical empiricist) movement. While presenting a paper in Prague at the Eighth International Congress of Philosophy, he discussed his hopes for a union of pragmatism and positivism. Sympathetic to the positivist's philosophical project, Morris became the number one American advocate for the "Unity of Science Movement" led by Otto Neurath. During the 1930s, Morris helped several German and Austrian philosophers emigrate to the United States, including Rudolf Carnap in 1936. As a part of the "Unity of Science Movement," Morris worked closely with Neurath and Carnap to produce the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. As co-editor of the Encyclopedia, Morris procured publication in America from the University of Chicago Press. His involvement with the Encyclopedia spanned for ten years when the project lost momentum in 1943. Both Morris and Carnap found it difficult to keep the Encyclopedia alive due to insufficient funds. In the latter part of the 1940s, Morris was finally able to secure funding that allowed the project to last until its final publication in the 1970s.