John Hospers
Encyclopedia
John Hospers was an American
philosopher. In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party
, and the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 U.S. Presidential election.
, Hospers graduated from Central College. Hospers earned advanced degrees from the University of Iowa
and Columbia University
. He conducted research, wrote, and taught in areas of philosophy
, including aesthetics
and ethics
. He taught philosophy at Brooklyn College
and at the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Philosophy, where for many years he was chairman of the philosophy department.
Hospers was professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California
.
In 2002, an hour-long video about Hospers' life, work, and philosophy was released by the Liberty Fund
of Indianapolis
, as part of its Classics of Liberty series.
Hospers was editor of The Personalist (1968–1982) and The Monist
(1982–1992), and was a senior editor at Liberty
magazine.
. He appeared on radio shows
with Ayn Rand
, and devoted considerable attention to her ideas in his ethics textbook Human Conduct.
According to Rand's biographer, Barbara Branden
, Hospers met Rand when she addressed the student body at Brooklyn College. They became friends, and had lengthy philosophical conversations. Rand's discussions with Hospers contributed to her decision to write nonfiction. Hospers read Atlas Shrugged
, which he considered an aesthetic triumph. Hospers also became convinced of the validity of Rand's moral
and political
views, but disagreed with her about issues of epistemology, the subject of their extensive correspondence. Rand broke with Hospers after he criticized her talk on "Art as Sense of Life," before the American Society of Aesthetics at Harvard
.
and Colorado
), receiving 8715 popular votes. They received one electoral vote from faithless elector
Roger MacBride
, a Republican from Virginia
, resulting in Nathan becoming the first woman to have received an electoral vote in a United States presidential election.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
philosopher. In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
, and the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 U.S. Presidential election.
Education and career
Born in Pella, IowaPella, Iowa
Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,832 at the 2000 census. Pella is the home of Central College as well as several manufacturing companies, including Pella Corporation and Vermeer Manufacturing Company.- History :...
, Hospers graduated from Central College. Hospers earned advanced degrees from the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He conducted research, wrote, and taught in areas of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, including aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
. He taught philosophy at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
and at the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Philosophy, where for many years he was chairman of the philosophy department.
Hospers was professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
In 2002, an hour-long video about Hospers' life, work, and philosophy was released by the Liberty Fund
Liberty Fund
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It is dedicated to the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals...
of Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, as part of its Classics of Liberty series.
Works
Hospers' books include: Meaning and Truth in the Arts (1946), Introductory Readings in Aesthetics (1969), Artistic Expression (1971), Law and the Market (1985), Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (now in the 4th edition, 1996), Human Conduct (now in its 3rd edition, 1995), Understanding the Arts (1982), and Libertarianism – A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971). He was editor of three anthologies, and contributed to books edited by others. He authored about 150 articles in various scholarly and popular journals.Hospers was editor of The Personalist (1968–1982) and The Monist
The Monist
The Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry is an American academic journal in the field of philosophy. It was founded in October 1890 by Edward C. Hegeler, making it one of the longest-established journals in philosophy...
(1982–1992), and was a senior editor at Liberty
Liberty (1987)
Liberty is a leading libertarian journal founded in 1987 by R. W. Bradford in Port Townsend, Washington, and currently edited from San Diego, California, by Stephen Cox...
magazine.
Friendship with Ayn Rand
During the period he taught philosophy at Brooklyn College, Hospers was much interested in ObjectivismObjectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
. He appeared on radio shows
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
with Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, and devoted considerable attention to her ideas in his ethics textbook Human Conduct.
According to Rand's biographer, Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden is an American Objectivist writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with philosopher Ayn Rand.-Life:...
, Hospers met Rand when she addressed the student body at Brooklyn College. They became friends, and had lengthy philosophical conversations. Rand's discussions with Hospers contributed to her decision to write nonfiction. Hospers read Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
, which he considered an aesthetic triumph. Hospers also became convinced of the validity of Rand's moral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
and political
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
views, but disagreed with her about issues of epistemology, the subject of their extensive correspondence. Rand broke with Hospers after he criticized her talk on "Art as Sense of Life," before the American Society of Aesthetics at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Politics
In the 1972 U.S. Presidential election, John Hospers and Tonie Nathan were the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, respectively, of the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party was poorly organized, and Hospers and Nathan managed to get on the ballot in only two states (WashingtonWashington State
Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...
and Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
), receiving 8715 popular votes. They received one electoral vote from faithless elector
Faithless elector
In United States presidential elections, a faithless elector is a member of the Electoral College who does not vote for the candidate they have pledged to vote for...
Roger MacBride
Roger MacBride
Roger Lea MacBride was an American lawyer, political figure, and television producer. He was the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1976 election....
, a Republican from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, resulting in Nathan becoming the first woman to have received an electoral vote in a United States presidential election.
Electoral history
United States presidential election, 1972United States presidential election, 1972
The United States presidential election of 1972 was the 47th quadrennial United States presidential election. It was held on November 7, 1972. The Democratic Party's nomination was eventually won by Senator George McGovern, who ran an anti-war campaign against incumbent Republican President Richard...
- Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
/Spiro AgnewSpiro AgnewSpiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
(R) (inc.)—47,168,710 (60.7%) and 520 electoral votes (49 states carried) - George McGovernGeorge McGovernGeorge Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
/Sargent ShriverSargent ShriverRobert Sargent Shriver, Jr., known as Sargent Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, or, from childhood, Sarge, was an American statesman and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family, serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
(D)—29,173,222 (37.5%) and 17 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried) - John Hospers/Theodora Nathan (Libertarian)—8,715 (0.0%) and 1 electoral vote
- John G. SchmitzJohn G. SchmitzJohn George Schmitz was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives and California State Senate from Orange County, California. He was also a member of the John Birch Society...
/Thomas J. AndersonThomas J. AndersonThomas Jefferson Anderson was an American conservative author, farmer, and candidate for the U.S. presidency.-Early life:...
(American Independent)—1,100,868 (1.4%) - Linda JennessLinda JennessLinda Jenness was a Socialist Workers Party candidate for president of the United States in the 1972 election. She received 83,380 votes .In Arizona, Pima and Yavapai counties had a ballot malfunction that counted many votes for both a major party candidate and Linda Jenness. A court ordered that...
/Andrew PulleyAndrew PulleyAndrew Pulley is an American politician who ran as Socialist Workers Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1972; at the time he was twenty years old, making him ineligible under the United States Constitution. Along with Presidential candidate Linda Jenness he received 52,799...
(Socialist Workers)—83,380 (0.1%) - Benjamin SpockBenjamin SpockBenjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
/Julius HobsonJulius HobsonJulius W. Hobson was the People's Party Vice Presidential candidate in 1972. Benjamin Spock was the People's Party Presidential candidate. They polled 0.1014% of the popular vote and no electoral votes....
(People's)—78,759 (0.1%) - Others—135,414 (0.2%)