Irwin Edman
From Philosopedia
Edman, Irwin (1896—1954)
Chairman of the philosophy department at Columbia University, Edman was a naturalist in philosophy, along with Ernest Nagel.
He was graduated by Columbia University in 1917, began lecturing in philosophy there in 1918, and headed the department in 1945.
Edman combined pragmatism with his interest in esthetics, as shown in Philosopher’s Holiday (1938).
A foremost American writer on the philosophy of George Santayana, he wrote his political views in Fountainheads of Freedom (1941).
Edman is noted for being a spokesman in the liberal tradition of William James and of John Dewey.
A strong believer in education and the importance of fighting evil, he remarked, “When we give up the battle, the devil must smile as he watches us relax—under the guidance of theologians,” a wry reference to his contempt for those theologians.
In his Candle in the Dark (1939), Edman wrote, “Men in the nineteenth century were sad that they could no longer believe in God; they are more deeply saddened now by the fact that they can no longer believe in man.”
In Four Ways of Philosophy (1937), Edman notes that the naturalist admits some religious impulse in man, but
- the supernaturalist insists that this impulse which nature generates cannot be satisfied by nature save as seen in a supernatural context. To which the naturalist retorts that nature generates some impulses, possibly, which cannot be satisfied, as a man may be hungry without proving thereby that food is in his neighborhood or his reach.
