Essays in the History of Ideas (Signed)

Lovejoy, Arthur O.

John Hopkins Press, Baltimore MD, 1948

Tipped in signature of Arthur O. Lovejoy on half title page. Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Shelf wear. Tears to jacket. Small markings and stamp on copyright page. xvii, 359 p., 23 cm.

Arthur O. Lovejoy (1873-1962) was a leading philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual in the first half of the twentieth century. He is perhaps best known today for his role in establishing the principles of academic freedom (through his work in founding the AAUP) and for founding the Journal of the History of Ideas. He was Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins from 1910 to 1938, and continued to write and be active in the History of Ideas Club until his death in 1962. From 1915 to 1940 he was second in stature within American philosophy only to John Dewey, and while he is mainly studied today by intellectual historians, his early work on pragmatism and philosophy of mind follows an analytic method that has aged quite well. The Great Chain of Being (1936) remains an acknowledged classic in the history of ideas.