Ralph Barton Perry

From Philosopedia

Perry, Ralph Barton (3 July 1876 – 22 January 1957)

Perry was a philosopher at Harvard University and the Pulitzer Prize-winner in 1936 for The Thought and Character of William James (1935).

Asked for his views on humanism, Perry was eighty and confined to a hospital bed but recommended that his new work, The Humanity of Man (1956) be consulted, for it showed his views.

In a review of that book in The Journal of Philosophy (16 August 1956), Harold A. Larrabee wrote,

• A weakness for which the author is not responsible, but which the book does little to remedy, lies in the multiple and confusing meanings of ‘humanism.’ The ancient classicists, the Renaissance scholars, the followers of More and Babbitt, and the scientific anti-supernaturalists each have firm holds on separate corners of the label, and have torn it to shreds. How can any small group of men make good an exclusive claim to so broad a classification? Professor Perry’s own ‘humanism,’ which includes and excludes something of each of them, only complicates further an already intolerable imbroglio in semantics. The humanity of man, as freedom of choice, is bountifully manifested in the diverse and conflicting ways in which men lay claim to the title of human.

{WAS, 1 May 1956}