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William Frankena | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1908-06-21)June 21, 1908 Manhattan, Montana, U.S. |
| Died | October 22, 1994(1994-10-22) (aged 86) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | Harvard (Ph.D.) Michigan (M.A.) Calvin College (B.A.) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Institutions | Michigan (1937–1978) |
| Main interests | Ethics |
| Notable ideas | Definist fallacy Naturalistic fallacy |
William Klaas Frankena (June 21, 1908 – October 22, 1994)[1] was anAmericanmoral philosopher. He was a member of theUniversity of Michigan's department of philosophy for 41 years (1937–1978), and chair of the department for 14 years (1947–1961).
Frankena's father and mother immigrated to the U.S. as teenagers, in 1892 and 1896 respectively, fromFriesland, a province in the north of theNetherlands. William Frankena was the middle one of three children. He was born inManhattan, Montana, grew up in small Dutch communities in Montana and western Michigan, and spokeWest Frisian andDutch. In primary school, his given name, Wiebe, was Anglicized to William. Throughout his life, his family and friends called him Bill. His mother died when he was nine years old. He graduated from Holland Christian High School inHolland, MI, in 1926. After farming, his father, Nicholas A. Frankena (1875–1955), devoted the later decades of his life to elected office inZeeland, MI, where he was mayor, and to service as an elder in theChristian Reformed Church in North America, which was founded by Calvinist Dutch immigrants.
In 1930, Frankena received a B.A. with majors in English and philosophy fromCalvin College, aliberal arts college of the Christian Reformed Church. At Calvin, Frankena studied withWilliam Harry Jellema (1893–1982). Frankena then earned an M.A. from theUniversity of Michigan (1931), where the Department of Philosophy includedC. Harold Langford (1895–1964),Dewitt H. Parker (1885–1949), andRoy Wood Sellars (1880–1973). Next Frankena earned a second M.A. and a Ph.D. (1937) atHarvard University. He studied withC. I. Lewis,Ralph Barton Perry, andAlfred North Whitehead at Harvard, and withG. E. Moore andC. D. Broad at theUniversity of Cambridge in England while he didPh.D. research. His doctoral dissertation, which focused on Moore's work, was entitled "Recent Intuitionism in British Ethics." Frankena became well known in the profession with his first published paper, "The Naturalistic Fallacy",Mind, 1939. During World War II, Frankena taught American history at the University of Michigan.
Frankena met his future wife, Sadie, when they were students at Calvin College. In 1928–29, Sadie was president of Calvin's forensic (oration and debate) club and editor-in-chief of Calvin's literary review,Chimes; Frankena was business manager of the club and associate editor of the review. (Prism, Calvin College, 1929) He and Sadie were married for 44 years, until Sadie's death in 1978. He was an avid birder, and is survived by two sons, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Many Michigan undergraduates were introduced to philosophy in the popular, historically based course taught by Frankena and his close friend Paul Henle. For nearly his entire career, Frankena did most of his philosophical reading and writing at home at a desk made circa 1870. When he wrote a philosophical paper, he prepared a detailed outline, including very abbreviated versions of all points and cites, before writing the paper longhand using a mechanical pencil. He never used a typewriter or computer. Frankena greatly valued his many conversations with other moral philosophers throughout the U.S. and western Europe. William K. Frankena's philosophical papers are in the collection of theBentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. His philosophy books are in the collection of the Tanner Philosophy Library in Angell Hall at the University of Michigan.
While he was chair of the Michigan Philosophy Department, Frankena devoted a considerable portion of his time to service to the university and the philosophy profession, and became known for his role in defending academic freedom during theMcCarthy era.[2][3]
After that period, he had more time to publish books and articles.[citation needed] In his 1963 bookEthics, Frankena clarified various fundamental concepts inethics andvalue theory. He emphasized the distinction betweenthe good, which concerns any items that contribute positively to someone's life, and the right, which concerns themoral evaluation ofactions and policies. Based on this distinction, he contrasted the ethical theories ofteleology anddeontology. According to teleological theories, an action is right if it produces the most good, meaning that the right is directly determined by the good. Frankena argues that deontological theories are different by asserting that some actions are inherently right, regardless of the outcomes they produce.[4][5] He further explored the various meanings of the termgood, the diverse types of value, and the sources ofintrinsic value.[6]
During his career Frankena was chair of the Board of Officers of theAmerican Philosophical Association (APA), chair of the Council for Philosophical Studies, president of the APA's Western Division, a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education, and a recipient of aGuggenheim Fellowship, a Fellowship from theCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, aNational Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowship, and aRockefeller Fellowship. Frankena was also active onPhi Beta Kappa Society committees. In 1974, he delivered the APA's prestigiousPaul Carus Lectures on "Three Questions about Morality." Calvin College named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1984. Frankena received the University of Michigan's Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, wasRoy Wood Sellars Distinguished Collegiate Professor of Philosophy, and was the first College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Distinguished Senior Faculty Lecturer.[citation needed]
A memorial essay by a member of the Michigan Philosophy Department states that "William Frankena contributed as widely tomoral philosophy and its neighboring areas as anyone in that remarkable group that dominated English-speakingethics from the end of World War II well into the 1980s. Frommetaethics, thehistory of ethics, andnormative ethical theory, tomoral education,moral psychology, andapplied ethics, toreligious ethics and thephilosophy of education, the sweep and quality of his ethical philosophizing was simply extraordinary."[2] When Frankena retired and was awardedemeritus status in 1978, the University Regents stated that "he is renowned for his learning in the history of ethics, a subject about which he is generally believed in the profession to know more than anyone else in the world."[2] The July 1981 issue ofThe Monist is devoted to "The Philosophy of William Frankena."[7]
The university has created a chair for the "Carl G. Hempel & William K. Frankena Distinguished University Professor", and annually awards the William K. Frankena Prize for excellence in philosophy to an undergraduate student.
