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. He authored over 20 books covering diverse topics such as cinema, love, sexuality, and the philosophy of George Santayana. Singer also explored the philosophy of film, including the works of directors Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary, Singer demonstrated early academic promise, graduating from high school at age 15. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, writing a history of his artillery group. After the war, he pursued higher education on the G.I. Bill, earning degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University. Singer taught at several institutions before joining MIT in 1958, where he held various professorial ranks and taught courses on subjects like the Philosophy of Love and Film as Visual and Literary Philosophy. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 89.