Charles W. Morris facts for kids

Charles William Morris (born May 23, 1901 – died January 15, 1979) was an American philosopher and a semiotician. This means he was a thinker who studied how we use signs and symbols to understand the world.

Early Life and Learning

Charles William Morris was born in Denver, Colorado, on May 23, 1901. His parents were Charles William and Laura (Campbell) Morris.

He first went to the University of Wisconsin. Later, he studied engineering and psychology at Northwestern University, finishing in 1922. That same year, he started studying philosophy at the University of Chicago. There, he worked with a famous teacher named George Herbert Mead. Morris earned his Ph.D. in 1925, after writing about how symbols help us think.

His Work and Career

After finishing his studies, Morris became a teacher. He taught at Rice University and then at the University of Chicago. In 1958, he became a special research professor at the University of Florida. One of his students was Thomas A. Sebeok, who also became a well-known semiotician.

Morris taught philosophy at Rice University in Houston, Texas, from 1925 to 1931. After that, he became an associate professor at the University of Chicago, teaching there from 1931 to 1947. He continued lecturing at Chicago until 1958. Then, he moved to the University of Florida as a Research Professor, staying there until he passed away.

While at Rice University, Morris developed his own philosophical ideas, which he called "neo-pragmatism." He also wrote a book called Six Theories of Mind. Morris believed that philosophy could help guide the world, especially during tough economic times. He even tried to create a special institute for philosophy at the University of Chicago, but it didn't happen.

Understanding Signs: Semiotics

Morris was very interested in how we use signs. He developed a way to understand signs based on how people behave. This field is called semiotics. He wanted to connect different ideas in philosophy, like logical thinking, studying behavior, and pragmatism (focusing on practical results).

Morris believed that symbols connect to three main things:

• Objects: What the symbol is about.
• People: How people use and understand the symbol.
• Other Symbols: How the symbol relates to other signs.

He later gave these connections special names: "semantics" (meaning), "pragmatics" (use), and "syntactics" (structure). Morris's ideas about signs were influenced by his teacher, George Herbert Mead. His detailed ideas about signs are explained in his book Signs, Language, and Behavior (1946).

His Work at the Institute for American Thought

Near the end of his life, in 1976, Morris sent some of his important writings to the Institute for American Thought (IAT) at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). After he died in 1979, his daughter, Sally Petrilli, sent even more of his work there. Later, another philosopher, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, added his letters with Morris to the collection. The IAT now has many of Morris's writings, covering topics like pragmatism, logical thinking, poetry, and ethics.

His Personal Life

In 1925, Charles Morris married Gertrude E. Thompson. They had a daughter named Sally Morris Petrilli. Later, in 1951, he married his second wife, Ellen Ruth Allen, who was a psychologist.

Charles William Morris passed away on January 15, 1979, in Gainesville, Florida.

The Unity of Science Movement

In 1934, Morris traveled to Europe. He met many important philosophers there, including Bertrand Russell and members of a group called the Vienna Circle, like Rudolf Carnap and Otto Neurath. Morris was very impressed by their ideas, which were part of a movement called "logical positivism." This movement focused on using logic and science to understand the world.

Morris believed that his ideas (pragmatism) could work well with logical positivism. He became a strong supporter of Otto Neurath's "Unity of Science Movement" in the United States. This movement aimed to bring all scientific knowledge together into one system.

During the 1930s, Morris helped several German and Austrian philosophers, like Rudolf Carnap, move to the United States to escape difficult times in Europe. As part of the "Unity of Science Movement," Morris worked closely with Neurath and Carnap to create the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. Morris helped get the Encyclopedia published in America by the University of Chicago Press. He worked on this project for many years, helping to find money to keep it going until its final publication in the 1970s.

Selected Books

Here are some of the books Charles W. Morris wrote:

• Charles W. Morris (1925). Symbolism and Reality: A Study in the Nature of Mind.
• Charles W. Morris (1932). Six Theories of Mind.
• Charles W. Morris (1942). Paths of Life: Preface to a World Religion.
• Charles W. Morris (1946). Signs, Language and Behavior.
• Charles W. Morris (1948). The Open Self.
• Charles W. Morris (1956). Varieties of Human Value.
• Charles W. Morris (1964). Signification and Significance: A Study of the Relations of Signs and Values.
• Charles W. Morris (1970). The Pragmatic Movement in American Philosophy.

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers