SIDNEY MORGENBESSER was a dominant figure in American philosophy of the past 50 years. For nearly half a century he taught in the philosophy faculty of Columbia University, and was appointed the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy. Noam Chomsky, the theoretician of language and one of America’s leading intellectuals, described Morgenbesser as “one of the most knowledgeable and in many ways profound thinkers of the modern period”.
His life embodied many of the paradoxes which he relished so much as a thinker. He influenced two generations of American philosophers without writing a major book or formulating a new doctrine. When challenged why he had written so little, he fired back: “Moses published one book. What did he do after that?”
His written legacy consists of