Charles W. Morris (
May 23, 1901,
Denver, Colorado—
January 15, 1979,
Gainesville, Florida) was an American
semiotician and
philosopher.
A son of Charles William and Laura (Campbell) Morris, Charles William Morris was born on 23 May 1901. Having briefly attended the University of Wisconsin, Morris studied engineering and psychology at Northwestern University, where he graduated with a B.S. in 1922. Later that same year, he entered the University of Chicago where he became a doctoral student in philosophy under the direction of George Herbert Mead. Morris completed his dissertation on a symbolic theory of mind and received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1925. In the same year he married Gertrude E. Thompson, with whom he had a daughter, Sally Morris Petrilli. In 1951 he married his second wife, Ellen Ruth Allen (a psychologist). After his graduation, Morris turned to teaching, first at Rice University, and later at the University of Chicago. In 1958 he became Research Professor at the University of Florida. His students included semiotician Thomas A. Sebeok. In 1937 Morris presided over the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association, and was Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Charles William Morris died on 15 January 1979 in Gainesville, Florida.
Morris was an instructor of philosophy for six years between 1925-1931 at Rice University in Houston, Texas.[1] After leaving Rice, he was associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago from 1931-1947. Morris became a lecturing professor at Chicago in 1948, occupying the position until 1958 when he received an offer for a special appointment as a Research Professor at the University of Florida, where he remained until his death.
During his time at Rice University, Morris wrote and defended his philosophical perspective known as neo-pragmatism. He also worked on and published Six Theories of Mind.[2] At the end of his term at Rice, Morris returned to the University of Chicago. In the early 1930s, the University of Chicago's philosophy department was unstable, but in the midst of change and difficult economic times, Morris felt that philosophy would serve as a torch that would light the way to saving world civilization.[3] Morris had hoped to create an institute of philosophy at the University of Chicago, but his efforts to convince the university president of such a venture were unsuccessful.
