Morris Weitz

Morris Weitz (; July 24, 1916 – February 1, 1981) "was an American philosopher of aesthetics who focused primarily on ontology, interpretation, and literary criticism". From 1972 until his death he was Richard Koret Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University.

Biography

Personal life Morris Weitz was born on July 24, 1916, in Detroit, his parents having emigrated from Europe (and his father having worked as a painting contractor). ) and the father of three children, Richard, David, and Catherine (the former being a director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute). Morris Weitz died on February 1, 1981, in hospital in Roxbury after a long illness aged 64, having lived latterly in Newton, Massachusetts. During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the University of Washington (1944–45), Vassar College (1945–48), and Ohio State University (1954–69). and was also honored as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. 1956 paper "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics" which was to win him a 1955 Matchette Prize ). This essay explicitly modified the theory of art initially provided in his 1950 book Philosophy of the Arts Storm critiques Weitz's appeal to "family resemblance" as ultimately circular, and instead suggests that Weitz's criticism points to broader issues surrounding the nature of social and natural kinds.

Works Philosophy of the Arts, 1950 reprinted in P. Lamarque and S. H. Olsen (eds), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 12–18. Philosophy in literature (1963) Hamlet and the philosophy of literary criticism (1964) editor of "Problems in aesthetics" (1959, 21970)