Department of Philosophy - University of Missouri-Columbia

  Benjamin Lecture Series


The Benjamin Lecture Series is of major significance both in the life of the department and that of the university community, bringing to campus a distinguished philosopher of science. It is sponsored by the Philosophy Department and supported by a generous endowment dedicated to the memory of A. C. Benjamin, distinguished former member of the department and pioneer philosopher of science.

A. Cornelius Benjamin was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1897 and died in Columbia, Missouri in 1968. He received his graduate training at the University of Michigan. He served in academic appointments at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago and was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Sorbonne and Cambridge before joining the University of Missouri in 1945 to occupy the John Hiram Lathrop Chair in Philosophy, where he remained until his retirement in 1966.

Professor Benjamin had a long and productive career as teacher and philosopher. He was a pioneer in philosophy of science as it emerged as a distinct discipline following the Second World War. Reflecting his roots in American pragmatism, he was interested not only in the logical structure of science, but in the impact of scientific discoveries on human life. He was deeply appreciative of the intellectual integrity and utility of science, but at the same time he was conscious of its limits and the possibilities for its abuse. To sort out these matters is the responsibility of philosophers of science, whether they be philosophers or scientists.

Benjamin's books included The Logical Atomism of Bertrand Russell (University of Illinois Press, 1927); The Logical Structure of Science (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1936); An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937); Operationism (Springfield, IL, Thomas Publishing, 1955); and Science, Technology, and Human Values (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1965).

Past Lecturers

  • W.V.O. Quine
  • Carl Hempel
  • Stephen Toulmin
  • Thomas Kuhn
  • Larry Laudan
  • Lewis White Beck
  • Donald Davidson
  • Wilfrid Sellars
  • Jaakko Hintikka
  • Jerry Fodor
  • Elliott Sober
  • Philip Kitcher