Charles Leslie Stevenson ( June 27, 1908– March 14, 1979) was an American analytic philosopher best known for his work in ethics. "For many years, one of America ’ s most well-known analytic writers in ethics was Charles Stevenson, whose 1937 'The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms,' and 1944 Ethics and Language, had become classics." and aesthetics. Biography Stevenson was  educated at Yale, receiving in 1930 a B.A. in English literature, at Cambridge where in 1933 he was awarded a B.A. in Moral Sciences (philosophy), and at Harvard, getting his Ph.D. there in 1935.Goldman, Alvin I., and Jaegwon Kim (1978), eds., Values and Morals, xi He was an instructor at Yale University from 1939 to 1944, spending some of that time teaching mathematics to wartime naval recruits. His post was not renewed in 1944 because the department did not approve of his emotivist views. After a period on a Guggenheim fellowship at Berkeley, Pomona, and Chicago, he was appointed to the University of Michigan where he taught from 1946 to 1977. He studied in England with  Wittgenstein and G. E. Moore. Among his students was Joel Feinberg. He gave the most sophisticated defense of emotivism in the post-war period. In his papers "The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms" (1937) and "Persuasive Definitions" (1938), and his book Ethics and Language (1944), he developed a theory of emotive meaning; which he then used to provide a foundation for his theory of a persuasive definition. He furthermore advanced emotivism as a meta-ethical theory that sharply delineated between cognitive, scientific uses of language (used to state facts and to give reasons, and subject to the laws of science) and non-cognitive uses (used to state feelings and exercise influence)   .
Charles Leslie Stevenson ( 1908– 1979) was an American analytic philosopher best known for his work in ethics. "For many years, one of America ' s most well-known analytic writers in ethics was Charles Stevenson, whose 1937 'The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms,' and 1944 Ethics and Language, had become classics." and aesthetics. Biography Stevenson was born on June 27, 1908, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was educated at Yale, receiving in 1930 a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in English literature, at Cambridge where in 1933 he was awarded a BA degree in moral sciences (philosophy), and at Harvard, getting his Doctor of Philosophy degree there in 1935.Goldman, Alvin I., and Jaegwon Kim (1978), eds., Values and Morals, xi He was an instructor at Yale University from 1939 to 1944, spending some of that time teaching mathematics to wartime naval recruits. His post was not renewed in 1944 because the department did not approve of his emotivist views. After a period on a Guggenheim fellowship at Berkeley, Pomona, and Chicago, he was appointed to the University of Michigan where he taught from 1946 to 1977. He studied in England with Ludwig Wittgenstein and G. E. Moore. Among his students was Joel Feinberg. He gave the most sophisticated defense of emotivism in the post-war period. In his papers "The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms" (1937) and "Persuasive Definitions" (1938), and his book Ethics and Language (1944), he developed a theory of emotive meaning; which he then used to provide a foundation for his theory of a persuasive definition. He furthermore advanced emotivism as a meta-ethical theory that sharply delineated between cognitive, scientific uses of language (used to state facts and to give reasons, and subject to the laws of science) and non-cognitive uses (used to state feelings and exercise influence) . Stevenson died on March 14, 1979, in Bennington, Vermont .
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June 27,
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March 14,
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born on June 27, 1908, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was
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B.A.
Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree
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B.A. in Moral Sciences
BA degree in moral sciences
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Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy degree
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Ludwig
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Stevenson died on March 14, 1979, in Bennington, Vermont