Richard J. Bernstein (born May 14, 1932) is an American philosopher, the Vera List Professor of Philosophy and former dean of the graduate faculty at The New School.
Bernstein grew up as part of a middle-class Jewish family in Borough Park, Brooklyn; his family moved to Long Island, New York following World War II. He received an A.B (1951) from the University of Chicago, a B.S. summa cum laude (1953) from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. (1958) from Yale University. He took a faculty position at Yale, but in 1965, the university denied him tenure despite the initial unanimous support of his department, leading to student protests and eventually to reforms of the tenure system at Yale. This event, now called the Bernstein Affair, was βone of the most contested cases of tenure in the United States.β Bernstein then moved to a tenured position at Haverford College, where he taught for 23 years and became the T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy before later moving to The New School. At The New School, the Richard J. Bernstein Endowed Prize Fellowship in Philosophy is awarded to distinguished philosophy students in his honor. In 1981, Bernstein became founding co-editor of Praxis International, the revived journal of the Yugoslav Praxis School philosophical movement. In 1988, he served as President of the Metaphysical Society of America.
He is best known for his work synthesizing and developing themes from American pragmatism, hermeneutics, and critical theory.
Davaney & Frisina (2006) write:
| β | Few contemporary philosophers are as influential in so many different intellectual disciplines and discussions as Richard J. Bernstein. He is at home not only among American pragmatic philosophers with whom he is so closely identified but equally with Continental thinkers. Moreover, he has engaged a wide range of perspectives in other disciplines, including the work of social theorists, cognitive psychologists, and, psychoanalysts. Bernstein is perhaps the premier thinker on the contemporary scene, who has simultaneously been able to maintain disciplinary integrity while participating in and encouraging cross-disciplinary conversation and a more encompassing critical dialogue. Thus, in an age of extreme specialization, Bernstein's influence has extended far beyond the boundaries of philosophy. | β |
Read more about Richard J. Bernstein: Bibliography, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words richard and/or bernstein:
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“Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.”
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