F. C. S. Schiller

F. C. S. Schiller
Born
Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller

(1864-08-16)16 August 1864
Died6 August 1937(1937-08-06) (aged 72)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationRugby School[1]
Balliol College, Oxford (B.A., 1887)
Era19th/20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolBritish pragmatism
InstitutionsCorpus Christi College, Oxford[1]
Main interests
Pragmatism, logic, ordinary language philosophy, epistemology, eugenics, meaning, personalism
Notable ideas
Criticism of formal logic, justification of axioms as hypotheses (a form of pragmatism), intelligent design, eugenics

Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller, FBA (German: [ˈʃɪlɐ]; 16 August 1864 – 6 August 1937), usually cited as F. C. S. Schiller, was a German-British philosopher. Born in Altona, Holstein (at that time member of the German Confederation, but under Danish administration), Schiller studied at the University of Oxford, later was a professor there, after being invited back after a brief time at Cornell University. Later in his life he taught at the University of Southern California. In his lifetime he was well known as a philosopher; after his death, his work was largely forgotten.

Schiller's philosophy was very similar to and often aligned with the pragmatism of William James, although Schiller referred to it as "humanism". He argued vigorously against both logical positivism and associated philosophers (for example, Bertrand Russell) as well as absolute idealism (such as F. H. Bradley).

  1. ^ a b John R. Shook, Joseph Margolis (eds.), A Companion to Pragmatism, John Wiley & Sons, Apr 15, 2008, p. 44.