Philip P. Wiener

Philip Paul Wiener (July 8, 1905 – April 5, 1992) was an American philosopher specializing in pragmatism, Charles S. Peirce, Leibniz, the history and philosophy of science, and the history of ideas. He co-founded the *Journal of the History of Ideas*. Wiener was born in New York City on July 8, 1905. He earned a BS from the City College of New York, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Southern California in 1931. He began his academic career as a professor of philosophy at the City College of New York in 1933, later moving to Temple University in Philadelphia in 1968, where he taught until his retirement in 1972. Wiener was a notable scholar of Pragmatism and Charles Sanders Peirce, and was involved in the establishment of the Charles S. Peirce Society in 1946. His intellectual interests also included Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Morris Raphael Cohen, and Pierre Duhem. He dedicated significant attention to the history and philosophy of science and the emerging field of the history of ideas. In 1940, Wiener, in collaboration with Arthur Oncken Lovejoy, co-founded the *Journal of the History of Ideas*. He served as its editor for many years, promoting an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship. From 1973 to 1974, Wiener served as editor-in-chief of the extensive *Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas*, a work comprising 320 articles covering a wide range of concepts. He also translated works such as Jean Nicod's *Foundations of Geometry and Induction* and Pierre Duhem's *The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory*. Wiener was married to Gertrude Schler Wierner and resided in Asheville, North Carolina, in his final years. He passed away on April 5, 1992, at the age of 86.