Edwards, Paul
EDWARDS, PAUL
EDWARDS, PAUL (1923–2004), U.S. philosopher and editor of the eight-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967), the first comprehensive work of its kind in English since 1901. Edwards was born in Vienna, took his doctorate at Columbia University, and taught at New York University and Brooklyn College. In later years, he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
A leading exponent of Bertrand Russell's philosophy and an atheist, Edwards was an aggressive opponent of religious philosophy and theological argumentation. He wrote The Logic of Moral Discourse (1955), in which he held that ethical predicates such as "good," "right," and "should" generally have two major functions: to describe something as having a certain property or properties and to express the speaker's pro or con attitude. Hence, he postulated, ethical predicates have, for the most part, descriptive as well as emotive meaning.
He also wrote Heidegger on Death: A Critical Evaluation (with Eugene Freeman, 1979), Equiano's Travels (1989), Reincarnation: A Critical Examination (1996), and Heidegger's Confusions (2004).
Among the many books Edwards edited are A Modern Introduction to Philosophy: Readings from Classical and Contemporary Sources (1967); and Immortality (1997).
[Richard H. Popkin /
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]