Philosopher Paul Weiss, Professor at Yale, CUA, 101
DGH
Paul Weiss, 101, a prominent metaphysician who taught philosophy at
Catholic University from 1969 until the early 1990s, died July 5 at his
home in Washington. He had a heart ailment.
Dr. Weiss, who received his philosophy doctorate from Harvard University
in 1929, taught at Bryn Mawr College and then, from 1946 to 1969, at
Yale University, where he was forced to retire as Sterling professor of
philosophy because of age. He as well as numerous colleagues and former
students unsuccessfully fought that rule.
After coming to Catholic University, where he taught under a series of
annual contracts, he published more than a dozen books, was voted the
most popular professor in the philosophy graduate program and was cited
in a 2001 Washington Post profile for serving "as dissertation adviser
for some of today's most prominent Catholic metaphysicians."
In the early 1990s, Catholic University announced it would not renew his
annual contract. Dr. Weiss and the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission fought the university on the grounds that he was losing his
job because of age discrimination. Though forced to retire from
teaching, he continued to write until his death.
In 2001, Vanderbilt University Press published his book "Emphatics," and
he was working on another. His other works on philosophy include "Modes
of Being," "Being and Other Realities" and "Ventures in Creativity." In
addition to philosophy, this worldly philosopher also published works on
art, film and politics.
Dr. Weiss, who was elected to the Library of Living Philosophers,
founded the Review of Metaphysics, which became one of the most widely
read philosophical journals in the English language, in 1947. He was a
founder of the Metaphysical Society.
Dr. Weiss was born in New York to working-class Jewish parents; his
father was an immigrant tinsmith, and his mother worked as a maid.
Perhaps he was nudged toward philosophy as an unlucky youth who managed
to twice be hit by horse-drawn carts. Dr. Weiss maintained that his
interest in philosophy began after he received "very bad advice" to
study for a career in business.
He began his scholarly career by learning shorthand and then dropping
out of high school. He became a stenographer at MacLevy's Gym at New
York's Madison Square Garden, where he gave shorthand lessons to a
boxing instructor in exchange for boxing lessons.
He enrolled in night school at the City College of New York, where he
was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then went to Harvard, where he studied
under the legendary philosopher and mathematician Alfred North
Whitehead. He remained an admirer of Whitehead's all his life, though
maintaining: "I'm not really a Whiteheadian. But on the other hand,
there's a saying that philosophy never recovers from the shock of a
great philosopher."
After joining the Yale philosophy faculty, he quickly gained a
reputation as a prolific writer, an animated and passionate teacher and
a mentor to scores of gifted philosophy students. His Yale students also
included two not known primarily as philosophers, writer William F.
Buckley and entertainer Dick Cavett.
In 1978, Dr. Weiss recalled for The Post that Cavett was "witty,
articulate, attractive, alert. Not profound, but quite intelligent." He
said Buckley was "roughly then what he is now: very mature. Which means
he learnt little." He also reported that he had given Buckley a B in the
1948 course he had taught.
In that story, Buckley, who remained in touch with his old professor
through the years, recalled Dr. Weiss as "an overnight campus
institution." Buckley added: "His principal impact was that he was
everywhere; he was available to all students to discuss any subject. He
was intensely carried away by his own subject, and enormously anxious to
interest his students in it. It was a permanent colloquy."
It has been written that as a metaphysician he erected broad systems of
thought in attempts to explain every aspect of being and knowledge, or
as someone else once defined "metaphysician," he was a person who
"climbs every tree at once."
Dr. Weiss was fond of quoting the maxim that "a philosopher is always
looking for trouble."
Many feel metaphysics has gone out of style, and some felt that Dr.
Weiss was a figure from some academic past. Yet in addition to teaching,
writing and editing, he had been the subject of documentary films,
symposiums had been held in his honor, and he had been interviewed by
popular television hosts (his favorite was Jack Paar).
Robert Neville, a former Weiss student who became dean of Boston
University's theology school, once said of Dr. Weiss that his larger
legacy is beyond doubt. "He more than anyone else sustained American
philosophy in the grand tradition through the middle part of the
century," Neville said.
In 1978, Dr. Weiss's then-colleague and dean of Catholic University's
philosophy school, Jude Dougherty, told The Post: "When American
philosophy got tangled in analytics and materialism, Paul Weiss was
there to remind everyone that our profession is really about the study
of wisdom. That nature and being and reality are the philosopher's
workshop. He's never been a fad, but I think the future may well be
kind."
His wife, Victoria, died in 1953.
Survivors include a son, Jonathan A., of New York, and a daughter,
Judith E. Weiss of Las Vegas.