Lewis White Beck

Lewis White Beck (26 September, 1913 - 7 June, 1997) was an internationally recognized scholar and philosopher at the University of Rochester who specialized in the study of German Idealism and the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant. His translation of Kant's Critique of Practical Reason was praised by many of his peers both in the United States and Germany. He also contributed to the founding of the North American Kant Society which fosters cooperative research into the works of Immanuel Kant internationally.

• In the logic of science there is a principle as important as that of parsimony: it is that of sufficient reason. The former directs us to look for simplest causes, the later cautions us not to simplify so far that the explanation is inadequate to the facts to be explained....Parsimony is not itself a simple criterion of a good methodology; we cannot simply count the factors of explanation and say that the theory containing the smallest number is the best. The ideal of parsimony cannot be expressed without the proviso that the conditions for which it is a norm shall themselves be adequate.
  • Lewis White Beck, The "Natural Science Ideal" in the Social Sciences (1949), pp. 393-394

• For it is only in the Critique that all the various strands of Kant's thought are woven together into the pattern of his practical philosophy. This pattern, in turn, can be understood only in the entire fabric of the critical philosophy, and that rich design can be clear only to those who have understood each of its three principal parts, which are the three Critiques and not shorter and more popular works like the Prolegomena and the Foundations.
  • Lewis White Beck, A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (1961), p. VI Foreword

• If you believe that you are not a machine, but that I am (then) I do not know why you are reading this book".
  • Lewis White Beck, The Actor and the Spectator - book reviewed by Mary Midgley in The Philosophical Quarterly", Vol. 27, Issue 107, April 1977 p. 185-186 (1975), p. 29

• But somewhat like people who object to spending money needed in the ghettoes on exploring the moon, I think the best hope for our survival is to be based on understanding human predicaments here on earth, not expecting a saving message from super-human beings in the sky...Thinking about and even hoping to find extraterrestrial civilizations, however, sharpen our search for and appreciation of the peculiar virtues and vices of the only form of life we know.
  • Lewis White Beck, "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life" in Extraterrestrials Science and Alien Intelligence ( Regis Jr., Edward. Ed., 1985), Part I, p. 14

• The quest for other, and better, forms of life, society, technology, ethics, and law may not reveal that they are actually elsewhere; but it may in the long run help us to make some of them actual on earth.
  • w:Lewis White BeckLewis White Beck, "Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life" in Extraterrestrials Science and Alien Intelligence ( Regis Jr., Edward. Ed., 1985), Part I, p. 14

• It is not my place to tell you whether there is indefeasible ignorance of ultimate reality. I am ignorant of whether there is or is not. But you should think of these things because there are no things more important, though there are no questions more difficult or less answerable. But one's whole life may be changed if one changes his mind about these questions.
  • Lewis White Beck, " Praise of Ignorance" in Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck. (Predrag Cicovacki, 2001), Introduction p. XXV from the Kearse Distinguished Lecture, Rochester Institute of Technology, May 2, 1983

• "Philosopher, Scholar Lewis White Beck Dies" – University of Rochester press release.
• Lewis White Beck papers, A.B39, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
• The Lewis White Beck Manuscripts of Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy" University of Delaware Library Special Collections Archive
• Lewis White Beck's "Extraterrestrial intelligent Life" online at Google Books
• Lewis White Beck. JSTOR.
• Works by Lewis White Beck in Kantian Review on cambridge.org
• Works by Lewis White Beck's on Worldcat.org
• Works by Lewis White Beck on Google Scholar
• Lewis White Beck's A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason on archive.org