Herbert W. Schneider

From Philosopedia

Schneider, Herbert W(allace) (1892–1984)

Schneider, an associate of John Dewey and a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, was author of History of American Philosophy (1946) and Religion in Twentieth Century America (1952, 1964), in the latter of which he characterized humanists as follows:

There are among the humanists left-wing Unitarians who do not reflect the liberalism of Emerson and who do not wish to be confined to Christian limitations. There are materialists who are no longer “doctrinaire” materialists but who are suspicious of the theologians who use terms like “soul,” “immortal,” transcendental,” “God,” and “spirit”; they prefer more secular language for their secular truths. There are naturalists who are disgusted by the use of . . . supernatural symbols and myths . . . who find no use for organized religions, but who have a “religious” concern for the life of reason. There are still a few old-fashioned rationalists, free-thinkers or professional atheists . . . . And there are many individuals who cannot be labeled. . . .

He also wrote

The Fascist Government of Italy (1936, 1939)

Religion in Various Cultures (with Horace L. Friess, 1937)

Landmarks in Philosophy (with Irwin Edman, 1941)

Adam Smith's Moral and Political Philosophy (1948)

Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography (edited, 1953)

On World Government (De Monarchia) (with Dante Alighieri, 1957)

Hobbes: Leviathan 1 and 2 (1958)

Morals for Mankind: The Paul Anthony Brick Lectures (1960)

Ways of Being: Elements of Analytic Ontology (1962)

A History of American Philosophy, 2nd Edition (1963)

Sources of Contemporary Philosophical Realism in America (1964)

On the subject of humanism Schneider, who was a signer of Humanist Manifesto II, wrote to Warren Allen Smith:

You state the important types of humanism very well and if I had to choose I would certainly belong in the seventh, naturalistic humanism. But I am interested in giving a humanistic account of theism without supernaturalism. To me it seems pretty close to the position of Feuerbach in his Essence of Christianity.

(See entry for the Columbia University School of Pragmatism.)

{CL; HM2; PK; SHD; WAS, 5 March 1951}