Irving Singer

Irving Singer (December 24, 1925 – February 1, 2015) was an American professor of philosophy who was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 55 years and wrote over 20 books. He was the author of books on various topics, including cinema, love, sexuality, and the philosophy of George Santayana. He also wrote on the subject of film, including writings about the work of film directors Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock.

Biography Singer was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on December 24, 1925;

Singer skipped three grades in school, graduating from Manhattan's Townsend Harris High School at age 15.

He died in 2015, aged 89. ACLS Research Scholar, 1949–1950 Post-doctoral Fulbright Research Scholar, 1955–1956 Bollingen Grant-in-aid, 1958, 1959, 1965 The Hudson Review Fellow in Criticism, 1958–1959 Guggenheim Fellowship, 1965–1966 ACLS Grant-in-aid, 1966 Fellow of the Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy, 1965–1967 Bollingen Fellowship, 1966–1967 Rockefeller Foundation Grant, 1970 Balliol College/MIT Exchange, Oxford University, 1999 Fellow, European Humanities Research Centre, Oxford University, 1999–2004

Published works Santayana's Aesthetics: A Critical Analysis (1957) * The Goals of Human Sexuality (1973) Mozart and Beethoven: The Concept of Love in Their Operas (1977) The Nature of Love Volume 1: Plato to Luther (1984) The Nature of Love Volume 2: Courtly and Romantic (1984) The Nature of Love Volume 3: The Modern World (1987) Meaning in Life: The Creation of Value (1992, 1996) Meaning in Life Volume 2: The Pursuit of Love (1994) Meaning in Life Volume 3: The Harmony of Nature and Spirit (1996) Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique (1998) George Santayana, Literary Philosopher (2000) Feeling and Imagination: The Vibrant Flux of Our Existence (2001) Explorations in Love and Sex (2001) Sex: A Philosophical Primer (2001, expanded edition: 2004) Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir (2004) Ingmar Bergman, Cinematic Philosopher: Reflections on his Creativity (2007) Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film (2008) Philosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-Up (2009) Modes of Creativity: Philosophical Perspectives (2011)