Goodman, Nelson [addendum] | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Goodman, Nelson [addendum]

Nelson Goodman (1906–1998) was one of the foremost philosophers of the twentieth century. His works reshaped epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of art. The Structure of Appearance (1977), which grew out of his PhD dissertation, shows how to construct interpreted formal systems that solve or dissolve longstanding epistemological and metaphysical problems. Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (1983) poses the new riddle of induction and proposes a solution to it, arguing that to block the inference to "All emeralds are grue," one must consider the ways terms have been inductively used in the past. Languages of Art (1976) reconceives aesthetics, construing it as a branch of epistemology. It is tempting to say that Goodman worked in diverse branches of philosophy. A more accurate claim would be that he focused on issues that cut across philosophy, showing that the branches are not so diverse as they sometimes seem.

Goodman attended Harvard University both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. During graduate school, he supported himself by running an art gallery in Boston. He spent most of his academic life as professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. For the final decade of his teaching career he was professor of philosophy at Harvard, where he founded Project Zero, an ongoing research program in arts education, and the Harvard Summer Dance Program.

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