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Marvin Farber papers, Professor of Philosophy and Phenomenology

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: 22/5F/768

This collection documents Marvin Farber's extensive correspondence with philosophers in the United States and abroad, including Rudolf Carnap, Roderick M. Chisholm, Charles Hartshorne, Martin Heidegger, Hans Reichenbach, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Wilfred Sellars. Additionally, a large selection of manuscripts record Farber's articles, speeches, and research notes, covering such topics as phenomenology, ethics, scientific inquiry, naturalism, and logic.

III: Early notes and papers, traces his academic work as a student, and include course catalogs from the universities he attended: Harvard, Freiburg, and Heidelberg. These notes contain his early work on phenomenology and logic, as well as papers on other philosophers such as Edmund Husserl, Henri Bergson, and Heidegger.

IV: Course files, includes both philosophy classes Farber took as a student, and those he taught at the University at Buffalo. Moreover, this series contains Farber's students' notes in the form of detailed reports summarizing class content. Many course files also have newspaper clippings documenting contemporary issues of his era, which Farber used to illustrate course subject matter.

Dates

  • circa 1920-1980

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English.

Terms of Access

The Marvin Farber Papers, Professor of Philosophy and Phenomenology, circa 1920-1980 are open for research.

Copyright

Copyright is held by The State University of New York at Buffalo, University Archives. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Extent

17 Linear Feet (35 manuscript boxes)

Additional Description

Overview

Collection of materials from Marvin Farber, professor of philosophy and phenomenology. Includes correspondence, publications, notes, speeches, and course files.

Biographical Note

An internationally known philosopher, Marvin Farber (1901-1980), served as professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1927-1961 and 1964-1974. In 1974, he was awarded professor emeritus status. Earning a Ph.D. in 1925 from Harvard, he also attended German universities in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Freiburg, where he would study under such notables as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Heinrich Rickert, and Ernst Zermelo. Later, Farber would find himself teaching such future scholars as Wilfred Sellars and Richard Hofstadter.

Farber also served as a member of many philosophical societies, including president of the International Phenomenological Society, president of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association, executive committee member of the Symbolic Logic Association, and member of the Paris Institute de Philosophe and the Charles S. Peirce Society. Authoring numerous books and articles on philosophy, Farber founded the journal, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, which he edited for forty years.
1901
Born December 14, in Buffalo, New York.
1918-1920
Studied music at the University of Buffalo.
1920
Transferred to Harvard University.
1922
Graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Philosophy.
1922-1924
Studied abroad at Berlin, Freiburg, and Heidelberg Universities.
1925
Received his Ph.D. from Harvard with the dissertation, Phenomenology as a Method and as a Philosophical Discipline.
1925-1926
Instructor of Philosophy, Ohio State University.
1927
Began his 44 years of Philosophy professorship at the University of Buffalo.
1930
Married Lorraine F. Walle (3 children).
1937-1961
Chairman of the Department of Philosophy.
1940-1980
Founder and editor of the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
1944-1945
Awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.
1950
Editor, Philosophic Thought in France and the United States: Essays Representing Major Trends in Contemporary French and American Philosophy (University of Buffalo).
1959
Published Naturalism and Subjectivism ©. C. Thomas).
1961-1964
Professor and Chairman of University of Pennsylvania's Philosophy Department.
1964
Returned to UB as Distinguished Service Professor.
1974
Conferred Professor Emeritus.
1977
Retired from UB.
1980
Died at the age of 79 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1984
Posthumously published "The Search for an Alternative: Philosophical Perspectives of Subjectivism and Marxism" (University of Pennsylvania Press).

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in four series: I. Correspondence, II. Manuscripts, III. Early Notes and Papers IV. Course Materials.

Acquisition Information

Received January 5, 1988, from Roger Farber, M.D., son of Marvin Farber.

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Related Materials in the University Archives

Philosophy Journals:
22/5F/769
Marvin Farber's correspondence as editor of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
22/5F/1008
The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: papers of Peter Hare (ed.), 1971-2002
UB Philosophy Department Faculty:
22/5F/190
Newton Garver Papers, 1963-1991
22/5F/1010
George F. Hourani Papers, 1927-1984
22/5F/767
Papers of William Tuthill Parry, 1908-1988
22/5F/998
Thomas D. Perry Papers, 1957-1982 (bulk 1970-1982)
MS 176
Peter H. Hare Family Papers, 1953-2006 (1953-1982 bulk), Series II.

Processing Information

Processed by Archives staff, circa 1988.

Subjects

Record Groups

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Source

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Finding Aid for the Marvin Farber papers, Professor of Philosophy and Phenomenology
Status
completed
Author
Finding aid prepared by Archives staff.
Date
2005
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und

Physical Storage Information

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the University Archives Repository

http://library.buffalo.edu/archives/
Contact:
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2916
716-645-3714 (Fax)