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Marjorie Grene (1910-2009)
By Liz Johnson, Projects Bibliographer
Marjorie Grene died in mid-March at the age of 98 in Virginia, where she had been Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Virginia Tech since 1988.
In the early 1930s she studied with in Europe with Heidegger (focusing on Plato) and Jaspers (focusing on Kant and Hegel), and pursued doctoral studies at Radcliffe, where she attended some of Alfred North Whitehead's lectures.
Her philosophy career spanned more than six decades, including a thirteen-year span at the University of California at Davis, where she chaired the philosophy department. She also taught at the University of Chicago in the early 1940s. She made time to continue her philosophic inquiries even after she and her husband David Grene left academia to pursue his dream of being a farmer. During fifteen years of (self-imposed?) exile from academia, she rose early to continue her philosophic inquiries. Although she said that farm chores and scholarly studies "didn't mix", she was able to write two books during that time: Dreadful Freedom: A Critique of Existentialism, which was published in 1948 and Heidegger, published in 1957. She has been credited by some with introducing the existentialist works of Sartre to the American public through a couple of books and several essays.
She was known as an independent thinker, with the most notable example of this being that she had an aversion to Cartesian thought. Rather than relying on the famous 'cogito' for proof of one's existence, she asserted that the impact one has on one's surroundings is more of an indication of one's being than self-awareness or self-reflection. In a 2003 interview for Believer magazine she said "I don't think there's any privileged self-knowledge. Most of our attention is to things outside us." This line of thinking was very much at odds with the prevailing philosophic winds of the mid-20th century.
She will perhaps be most remembered for her work with bringing together scientists, historians and philosophers in dialogue. She instigated two or three such conferences, and was a founding member of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB). This was in keeping with her studies of the synthesis of evolutionary theory and genetic theory - just one part of her pioneering work in the philosophic history of science, which ultimately led to the publication of The Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History, co-authored with David Depew.
Accolades included a prize named for her by the ISHPSSB and a volume in the series Library of Living Philosophers (volume 29, "The Philosophy of Marjorie Grene"), although in characteristic humor she attributed that honor to the editors' "desperately looking for a woman."
For more such entertaining examples of humor and irascibility, follow this link to the full Believer interview:
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200503/?read=interview_grene
Below please find a list of books related to Marjorie Grene. For your convenience, this list is also available in a MS Excel spreadsheet. click here.
DESCARTES AMONG THE SCHOLASTICS.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE
• PUBLISHER: MARQUETTE UNIV PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: B1878
• $15.00 PAPER (50 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780874621587
• B&T YBP
DESCARTES.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE GLICKSMAN, 1910-
• PUBLISHER: HACKETT
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: B1875.G72 1985
• $34.95 CLOTH (225 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780872204058
• B&T YBP
DESCARTES.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE GLICKSMAN, 1910-
• PUBLISHER: UNIV OF MINNESOTA PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: B1875
• $16.95 PAPER (225 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780816614554
• B&T YBP
DIMENSIONS OF DARWINISM: THEMES AND COUNTERTHEMES IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY EVOLUTIONARY THEORY.
• EDITOR: MARJORIE GRENE
• PUBLISHER: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL:
• LC CLASS: QH366
• $16.95 PAPER (336 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780521310215
• B&T YBP
ETIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, 1772-1844: A VISIONARY NATURALIST; TRANSLATED BY MARJORIE GRENE.
• AUTHOR: LE GUYADER, HERVE
• PUBLISHER: UNIV OF CHICAGO PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: QL31.G4G8913 2004
• $45.00 CLOTH (302 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780226470917
• B&T YBP
HUMAN NATURE AND NATURAL KNOWLEDGE:ESSAYS PRESENTED TO MARJORIE GRENE ON THE OCCASION OF HER SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY.
• EDITOR: ALAN DONAGAN
• PUBLISHER: D. REIDEL
• CONTENT LEVEL:
• LC CLASS: Q174
• $126.50 CLOTH (381 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9789027719744
• B&T YBP
MECHANIZATION OF THE HEART: HARVEY & DESCARTES; TRANSLATED BY MARJORIE GRENE.
• AUTHOR: FUCHS, THOMAS, 1958-
• PUBLISHER: UNIV OF ROCHESTER PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: QP101.4.F8313 2001
• EBOOK (247 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9781580466042
• B&T YBP
PHILOSOPHICAL TESTAMENT.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE GLICKSMAN, 1910-
• PUBLISHER: OPEN COURT
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: B945.G733P48 1995
• $18.95 PAPER (200 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780812692877
• B&T YBP
PHILOSOPHY IN AND OUT OF EUROPE
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE
• PUBLISHER: U PR OF AMERICA
• CONTENT LEVEL:
• LC CLASS: B804.G65 1987
• $9.75 PAPER (169 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780819163240
• B&T YBP
PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY: AN EPISODIC HISTORY.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE GLICKSMAN, 1910-
• PUBLISHER: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: QH331.G736 2004
• $80.00 CLOTH (416 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780521643719
• B&T YBP
PHILOSOPHY OF MARJORIE GRENE
• EDITOR: RANDALL E. AUXIER
• PUBLISHER: OPEN COURT
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: B945.G734P47 2002
• $32.95 PAPER (594 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780812695274
• B&T YBP
PORTRAIT OF ARISTOTLE.
• AUTHOR: GRENE, MARJORIE GLICKSMAN, 1910-
• PUBLISHER: THOEMMES PRESS
• CONTENT LEVEL: GEN-AC
• LC CLASS: B485.G74 1998
• $20.00 PAPER (273 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9781855065512
• B&T YBP
SARTRE
• AUTHOR: GRENE MARJORIE
• PUBLISHER: UNIV PRESS OF AMERICA
• CONTENT LEVEL:
• LC CLASS: B2430.S34G724 1983
• $24.00 PAPER (301 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780819133724
• B&T YBP
SPINOZA AND THE SCIENCES
• EDITOR: MARJORIE GRENE
• PUBLISHER: D. REIDEL
• CONTENT LEVEL: ADV-AC
• LC CLASS: Q174
• $96.00 CLOTH (336 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9789027719768
• B&T YBP
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