Irwin Edman

Irwin Edman (November 28, 1896 – September 4, 1954) was an American philosophy professor.

Biography

Irwin Edman was born in New York City to Jewish parents. He grew up in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, adjacent to Columbia University, with which he was to be affiliated his entire adult life. Edman spent his high-school years at Townsend Harris Hall, a New York high school for superior pupils. He then attended Columbia University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and earned his bachelor's degree in 1917 and his Ph.D. in 1920. During his student years at Columbia he was a member of the Boar's Head Society. He became a professor of philosophy at Columbia, and later was head of the philosophy department. In 1945 the United States Department of State and the Brazilian government sponsored a series of lectures he gave in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1953, Edman was elected vice president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (later succeeded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters).

Edman published books on philosophy as well as poetry and some fiction. His books include Philosopher’s Holiday, Richard Kane Looks at Life, Four Ways of Philosophy, Philosopher's Quest, and Arts and the Man: An Introduction to Aesthetics.

He died of a heart attack on September 4, 1954, in New York.

Bibliography

Arthur Schopenhauer: The World As Will And Idea

Arts and the man: a short introduction to aesthetics (1939)

Candle in the Dark: A Postscript to Despair (1939)

Don Quixote: The Ingenious Man of La Mancha (Introduction)