Richard Popkin

Richard Henry Popkin (born December 27, 1923 in New York City , † April 14, 2005 in Los Angeles ) was an American historian of philosophy . He specialized in skepticism , the Enlightenment, and modern Jewish philosophers . His standard work The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (1960) demonstrated the importance of skeptical Pyrrhonism alongside European philosophy, which was shaped by metaphysics and Christian theology . In later works he analyzed Jewish and Christian millenarianism and messianism of the early modern period.

Life

Richard Popkin was born in Manhattan . He grew up in a secularized Jewish family. His parents Louis and Zelda Popkin ran a public relations agency. They were interested and engaged in a wide variety of non-religious Jewish affairs. Among other things, they provided information about the Hitler dictatorship and advocated plans for the emigration of Jews. They supported government reforms and also communist initiatives. Zelda Popkin first published articles, then later detective stories and novels. In addition to his commitment to Jewish affairs, the father was also active as an election campaign manager. Popkin called it the 'center' of family life.

Richard Popkin graduated from Columbia University in New York with bachelor's and Ph. D. degrees (1950). He taught at various universities, at the University of Connecticut , at the University of Iowa , he was the dean of the philosophy faculty of the University of California at San Diego ( Herbert Marcuse was teaching there). Then Popkin was at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of California in Los Angeles . Popkin was visiting professor at Berkeley , Brandeis University , Duke University , Emory University , Tel Aviv University , and Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York .

Popkin founded (with Paul Dibon) and directed the International Archives of the History of Ideas series and was the first editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy . Among his honors is the Nicholas Murray Butler Medal from Columbia University . He had been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1996 . Richard Popkin spent his old age in the Pacific Palisades .

family

Popkin was survived by his wife Juliet (née Greenstone), with whom he had been married since 1944, and by two of their three children, Jeremy Popkin (* 1948) and Susan Popkin (* 1961). The daughter Margaret Popkin (* 1950), a civil rights attorney (she was involved in El Salvador during the bloody conflict in the 1980s) also died in 2005.

Fonts (selection)

Popkin became known outside the field for his comments on the Warren Commission's report on the Kennedy assassination . He published comments in the New York Review of Books and the book The Second Oswald (1966), which suggested the existence of more than one assassin.

Works

• The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes . Assen, 1960. Various, expanded new editions. Most recently as: The History of Skepticism from Savanarola to Bayle . 2003, ISBN 0-19-510768-3 .
• The High Road to Pyrrhonism . Austin Hill, San Diego, CA, 1980. Articles.
• Isaac la Peyrère (1596-1676): His Life, Work and Influence . EJ Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands. 1987.
• The Third Force in Seventeenth-Century Thought . EJ Brill, Leiden 1992. 22 articles, therein: Hume's Racism Reconsidered , pp. 64-75.
• Spinoza . Oxford, 2004.
• Disputing Christianity; The 400-Year-Old Debate Over Rabbi Isac Ben Abraham Troki 's Classic Arguments . Prometheus, Amherst, 2007. This book was fully edited by his son Jeremy Popkin.
• With all flaws; Memories of a Philosophy Historian . Meiner, Hamburg, 2008. 2 autobiographical essays and a work on the history of philosophy by Popkins. Bibliography.
• with Avrum Stroll: Philosophy Made Simple . Doubleday, New York 1956, ISBN 0-385-42533-3

Release

• with Craig Brush Pierre Bayle 's Historical and Cultural Dictionary . 1965. Translated and edited by RH Popkin.
• with Charles B. Schmitt : Skepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment . Harowitz, Wiesbaden 1987.
• Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought, 1650-1800 . EJ Brill, Leiden 1988.
• with Y. Kaplan and H. Méchoulan: Menasseh ben Israel and his World . EJ Brill, Leiden 1989.
• with Arjo Vanderjagt : Skepticism and Irreligion in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries . EJ Brill, Leiden 1993.
• Skepticism in the History of Philosophy; A Pan-American Dialogue . Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1996.
• The Columbia History of Western Philosophy . Columbia University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-231-10128-7
• with David S. Katz : Messianic Revolution: Radical Religious Politics to the End of the Second Millennium . Hill & Wang, 2000.
• with various editors: Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture . Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2001.
  • Volume I, with Matt Goldish: Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World .
  • Volume II, Karl A. Kottman (Ed.): Catholic Millenarianism; From Savonarola to the Abbé Grégoire .
  • Volume III, with James E. Force: The Millenarian Turn; Millenarian Contexts of Science, Politics, the Everyday Anglo-American Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries .
  • Volume IV, with John Christian Laursen: Continental Millenarians; Protestants, Catholics, Heretics .

Festschriften

• Richard A. Watson, James E. Force (Eds.): The Skeptical Force in Modern Philosophy . Nijhoff, 1988. With: RH Popkin: Intellectual Autobiography; Warts and All .
• James E. Force and David S. Katz (Eds.): Everything Connects: In Conference with Richard H. Popkin . EJ Brill, Leiden 1999.
• Jeremy Popkin (Ed.): The Legacies of Richard H. Popkin . Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands 2009.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Richard H. Popkin: With all Makeln. Memories of a Philosophy Historian. Hamburg 2008, pp. 15-21.
2. ↑ His scientific papers are in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA