Paul Edwards (philosopher) - Life and Career

Life and Career

Edwards was born Paul Eisenstein in Vienna in 1923 to assimilated Jewish parents, the youngest of three brothers. According to Peter Singer, his upbringing was non-religious. He distinguished himself early on as a gifted student and was admitted to the Akademisches Gymnasium, a prestigious Viennese high school. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Edwards was sent by his family to Scotland, later joining them in Melbourne, Australia, where the family name was changed to Edwards. He attended Melbourne High School, graduating as dux of the school, then studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne, completing a B.A. and M.A.

He was awarded a scholarship to study in England in 1947, but on his way there, he stopped in New York and ended up staying there for the rest of his life, apart from a brief period teaching at the University of California in Berkeley. He was awarded his doctorate by Columbia University in 1951. While writing his doctoral thesis he contacted Bertrand Russell because he shared Russell's scepticism about religious belief. This led to a lasting friendship and a number of joint projects. Edwards collected Russell's writings on religion and published them 1957, with an appendix on "the Bertrand Russell case," under the title Why I am not a Christian. He taught at New York University until 1966, at Brooklyn College from then until 1986, and at the New School from the 1960s until 1999.

Edwards was characterized by Michael Wreen as "mixed one part analytic philosopher to one part philosophe" with "a deep respect for science and common sense." His considerable influence on moral philosophy came from two works he edited, a very widely used introductory book he co-edited with Arthur Pap (A modern introduction to philosophy, 1965), and the famous Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an eight volume "massive Enlightenment work with notable analytic sensibility."

He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

A friend wrote in an obituary: "Those who knew Edwards will always remember his erudition and his wicked sense of humour. Given Paul's own biting wit, it's not surprising that he so admired Voltaire and Russell. Never one to hide his own unbelief, he often commented that his two main goals were to demolish the influence of Heidegger and keep alive the memory of Wilhelm Reich, the much-reviled psychoanalyst whose critiques of religion Edwards felt remained valid. Edwards was also sympathetic to the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, although he detested Kierkegaardian existentialist admirers such as Heidegger and William Barrett for confusing and conflating Kierkegaardian terminology.