William K. Frankena

William K. Frankena (1949)

William Klaas Frankena (born June 21, 1908 in Manhattan , Montana , † October 22, 1994 in Ann Arbor , Michigan , USA ) was an American analytical philosopher with a focus on ethics and professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor .

Frankena received his BA in English and Philosophy from Calvin College, an institution of the Christian Reformed Church in 1930, an MA from the University of Michigan the following year, a second MA in 1935, and a Ph.D. in 1937. at Harvard University . One of his teachers at Harvard was Alfred North Whitehead ; a research stay as part of his dissertation on intuitionism with the title Recent Intuitionism in British Ethics led him to George Edward Moore and CD Broad at the University of Cambridge in England .

Frankena began his academic career in 1937 as an instructor at the University of Michigan, where he was Chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1947 until his retirement in 1978. Frankena also served as President of the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association from 1965 to 1966 . In 1970 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Visiting professorships have taken him to Harvard University, Columbia University , Princeton University , the University of Tokyo and the University of Washington .

Frankena was known by his first article in 1939 under the title The Naturalistic Fallacy ( "the naturalistic fallacy ") in the British journal Mind appeared, as well as a succinct but substantial introduction to ethics and meta-ethics from an analytical perspective from 1963 which has been translated into eight languages.

Fonts (selection)

• The Naturalistic Fallacy , in: Mind vol. 48, 1939, pp. 464-477 [1] ; German in: G. Grewendorf / G. Meggle (ed.): Seminar: Language and Ethics. To the development of metaethics . Frankfurt am Main 1974.
• Ethics , 1963, 2nd ed. 1973.
  • German translation: Analytical ethics. An introduction . Ed. And trans. by Norbert Hoerster . dtv, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-423-04640-6
• Philosophy of Education , 1965.
• Three Historical Philosophies of Education: Aristotle, Kant, Dewey , 1965.
• (ed., with JT Granrose): Introductory Readings in Ethics , 1974.
• KE Goodpaster (ed.): Perspectives on Morality: Essays by William K. Frankena , 1976.
• Ethics and the Environment. In: KE Goodpaster, KM Sayre (eds.): Ethics and Philosophy. Problems of the 21st Century. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1979.
  • German translation: Ethics and the environment. In: Angelika Krebs (ed.): Naturethik. Basic texts of the current animal and eco-ethical discussion. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997.
• Three Questions about Morality , 1980 (Carus Lectures, 1974)
• Thinking about Morality , 1980.

literature

• Bibliography of the Writings of William K. Frankena , in: The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 3, H. 1 (1975), pp. 63–67 [2]

Web links

• Obituary, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, October 31, 1994 [3]