Essays in the History of Ideas

Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an influential American philosopher and intellectual historian, who founded the field known as the history of ideas. Lovejoy was born in Berlin, Germany while his father was doing medical research there. Eighteen months later, his mother committed suicide, whereupon his father gave up medicine and became a clergym...

Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an influential American philosopher and intellectual historian, who founded the field known as the history of ideas. Lovejoy was born in Berlin, Germany while his father was doing medical research there. Eighteen months later, his mother committed suicide, whereupon his father gave up medicine and became a clergyman. Lovejoy studied philosophy, first at the University of California, then at Harvard under William James and Josiah Royce. In 1901, he resigned from his first job, at Stanford University, to protest the dismissal of a colleague who had offended a trustee. The President of Harvard then vetoed hiring Lovejoy on the grounds that he was a known troublemaker. Over the subsequent decade, he taught at Washington University, Columbia University, and the University of Missouri. He never married.