Max Black

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Max Black (February 24, 1909 – August 27, 1988) was a Russian-born British-American philosopher who was a leading figure in analytic philosophy in the years after World War II. He made contributions to the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mathematics and science, and the philosophy of art, also publishing studies of the work of philosophers such as Frege. His translation (with Peter Geach) of Frege's published philosophical writing is a classic text.

Early life and education

Black was born, with the surname Tcherny, on February 24, 1909, in Baku, then within the Russian Empire and now the capital of Azerbaijan. As the family were Jewish and antisemitism was then prevalent in Russia, they left Baku whilst he was very young. After a short time in Paris, the family emigrated to England in 1912. The family name was changed to Black in 1911–1912.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He first attended a free school in north London, but aged nine was awarded a scholarship to Dame Alice Owen's School, where he remained until the age of eighteen.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He studied mathematics at Queens' College at the University of Cambridge, where he developed an interest in the philosophy of mathematics. Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. Moore, and Frank P. Ramsey were all at Cambridge at that time, and their influence on Black may have been considerable. He graduated in 1930, and was awarded a fellowship to study at the University of Göttingen for a year.<ref>Stroll, Avrum; Beloff, Ruth (2006) "Black, Max" Encyclopaedia Judaica. (2nd ed.), Garver, Newton (2005) "Black, Max (1909–1988)" Encyclopedia of Philosophy. via Encyclopedia.com. retrieved 11 March 2025</ref>

Career

From 1931 to 1936, Black was mathematics master at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

His first book was The Nature of Mathematics (1933), a critical exposition of Principia Mathematica and critical analysis of the formalist and intuitionist schools of mathematics.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Black made notable contributions to the metaphysics of identity. In a 1952 paper,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Black presents an objection to Leibniz' Law – the principle of the identity of indiscernibles that states that no two distinct things can exactly resemble each other. He does so, as Peter Forrest notes, by suggesting "there could be a universe containing nothing but two exactly resembling spheres" and that in "such a completely symmetrical universe the two spheres would be indiscernible".<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Black lectured in mathematics at the Institute of Education in London from 1936 to 1940.<ref name=":0" /> During this time he also undertook graduate work at the University of London, being awarded a Ph.D. in 1939 for his dissertation on theories of logical positivism.<ref name=":1">M.H. Abrams, Sydney S. Shoemaker, Benjamin M. Siegel, Milton E. Konvitz, "Max Black" Cornell University Memorial Statement (1998)</ref>

In 1940 he moved to the United States and joined the Philosophy Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In 1946, he accepted a professorship in philosophy at Cornell University. In 1948, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.<ref name=":1" /> Black advised the philosophy dissertation of American novelist William H. Gass.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963.<ref name="AAAS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Death and family

Black was the elder brother of the architect Misha Black and the public relations manager Sam Black.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1933 he married Michal (or Mabel) Landesberg (1911–1985) with whom he had a daughter and a son.<ref name=":3" />

Black died in Ithaca, New York age 79, from a heart attack that followed surgery for cancer.<ref name=":3" />

Works

• (1933) The Nature of Mathematics: A Critical Survey<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> (2nd edition, 1950)
• (1937). "Vagueness: An exercise in logical analysis". Philosophy of Science 4: 427–55. Reprinted in R. Keefe, P. Smith (eds.): Vagueness: A Reader, MIT Press 1997, Template:ISBN
• (1938). "The Evolution of Positivism" Modern Quarterly, Vol. 1. No. 1.
• (1946). Critical Thinking, An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, Prentice-Hall Inc. Publishers, Prentice-Hall Philosophy Series, New York (revised edition, 1952)
• (1949). Language and philosophy: Studies in method, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Template:ISBN
• (1954). "Metaphor", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 55, pp. 273–94.
• (1954). Problems of Analysis: Philosophical Essays, Cornell University Press
• (1959) "Linguistic relativity: The views of benjamin lee whorf", The Philosophical Review. Vol. 68, No. 2, (April 1959). pp. 228–38.
• (1962). Models and metaphors: Studies in language and philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Template:ISBN?
• (1964). A Companion to Wittgenstein's Tractatus, Cornell University Press
• (1968). The Labyrinth of Language, Praeger
• (1970). Margins of Precision: Essays in Logic and Language, Cornell University Press
• (1975). Caveats and Critiques: Philosophical Essays in Language, Logic, and Art, Cornell University Press
• (1977). “More about Metaphor.” Dialectica, vol. 31, no. 3/4, 1977, pp. 431–57. Template:JSTOR Reprinted in: A. Ortony (ed): Metaphor and Thought. (1979)
• (1981). Language and Philosophy: Studies in Method, Praeger
• (1985). The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays, Cornell University Press
• (1990). Perplexities: Rational Choice, the Prisoner's Dilemma, Metaphor, Poetic Ambiguity, and Other Puzzles, Cornell University Press

External links

• Biography at the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
• Guide to the Max Black Papers, Cornell University Library
• The Prevalence of Humbug, The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays (Cornell University Press, 1983).