Paul Edwards (philosopher)

66

Paul Edwards (philosopher) : biography

September 2, 1923 – December 9, 2004

Edwards was characterized by Michael Wreen as "mixed one part analytic philosopher to one part philosophe" with "a deep respect for science and common sense." His considerable influence on moral philosophy came from two works he edited, a very widely used introductory book he co-edited with Arthur Pap (A modern introduction to philosophy, 1965), and the famous Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an eight volume "massive Enlightenment work with notable analytic sensibility."Wreen, Michael. "Edwards, Paul," in Ted Honderich (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 1955, p. 220.

He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

A friend wrote in an obituary: "Those who knew Edwards will always remember his erudition and his wicked sense of humour. [ … ] Given Paul’s own biting wit, it’s not surprising that he so admired Voltaire and Russell. [ … ] Never one to hide his own unbelief, he often commented that his two main goals were to demolish the influence of Heidegger and keep alive the memory of Wilhelm Reich, the much-reviled psychoanalyst whose critiques of religion Edwards felt remained valid.Tim Madigan remembers Paul Edwards (1923-2004). In: The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly, Issue Nr. 127, August 2005 Edwards was also sympathetic to the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, although he detested Kierkegaardian existentialist admirers such as Heidegger and William Barrett for confusing and conflating Kierkegaardian terminology. Edwards, P. (1971). Kierkegaard and the ‘Truth’ of Christianity. Philosophy, 46, pp 89-108. doi:10.1017/S0031819100017150.

Wilhelm Reich

Edwards said that when he arrived in New York in 1947 Wilhelm Reich was "the talk of the town" and that for years he and his friends regarded Reich as "something akin to a messiah": "There was … a widespread feeling that Reich had an original and penetrating insight into the troubles of the human race."Edwards, Paul. "The Greatness of Wilhelm Reich," The Humanist, March/April 1974, reproduced in Charles A. Garfield (ed.). Rediscovery of the Body. A Psychosomatic View of Life and Death.Dell 1977, pp. 41-50. Twenty years later, as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edwards wrote an article about Reich, comprising 11 pages as compared to the four devoted to Freud, the only serious text a noted philosopher ever wrote on Reich. He pointed out what is of interest to philosophers in Reich: his views concerning the origin of religious and metaphysical needs, the relation between the individual and society and the possibility of social progress, and, above all, the implications of his psychiatry for certain aspects of the mind-body problem. An abridged version of the article appeared in the Encyclopedia of Unbelief (ed. Gordon Stein, 1985).

Edwards omitted Reich’s orgone therapy from the Encyclopedia article because, he said, "it is of no philosophical interest." But in a BBC interview he said somewhat more: "I concede that Reich had no real competence as a physicist… At the same time I am quite convinced that the orgone theory cannot be complete nonsense. For a number of years, largely out of curiosity, I sat in an orgone accumulator once a day."