Life and Career
Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller was born on 16 August 1864 in Schleswig-Holstein on the Danish side of the border. His father, of German origin, was a Calcutta merchant who gave his three sons British educations. After Rugby School, Schiller entered Oxford and Balliol, where Master Benjamin Jowett, T. H. Green, Edward Caird, Wallace, and Nettleship were founding British neo-idealism in the 1880s. Schiller was awarded Firsts in Classical Moderations and in Greats, the Taylorian Scholarship for German in 1887, and the B.A. degree. After teaching German for a year at Eton, he returned to Oxford for the M.A. degree. In 1893 he arrived at Cornell University to be an Instructor in logic and metaphysics and to do additional graduate work. He was not able to secure his Ph.D. at Cornell, but the long-awaited call to Oxford and Corpus Christi College came in 1897. He was an assistant tutor, tutor, senior tutor, and then fellow, and along the way he received the Oxford degree of D.Sc. in 1906. From 1900 to 1926 Schiller served as the treasurer of the Mind Association. He was President of the Aristotelian Society, President of the British Society for Psychical Research, and a Fellow of the British Academy (1926).
Schiller maintained a close interest in three areas besides traditional issues of philosophy: psychical research, educational reform, and eugenics. He defended the legitimacy of scientifically investigating psychical phenomena while personally maintaining a sound skepticism. He recommended university reforms away from the classics and pure logic towards science and applied subjects. In the area of eugenics, Schiller was also a vigorous advocate of a variety of eugenics "reforms." He was a founding member of the English Eugenics Society, served as its Vice-President in 1909, and sat on its Council in 1910-11, 1916, and 1936. He attended the First International Eugenics Congress in 1912.
Schiller retired from teaching at Corpus Christi in 1926, although remaining a Senior Fellow until his death. Also in that year he began his relationship with the University of Southern California, starting with a special visiting Lectureship, and later becoming a Professor and recipient of USC's honorary LL.D. He spent part of each year at Oxford and part at USC from 1926 to 1935, and lived year-round in Los Angeles until his death on 9 August 1937.
SCHILLER, Ferdinand Canning
Scott (1864-1937)
Article in Dictionary of
Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002), vol. 2,
pp. 979-983.
Select Bibliography of Major Writings
[Complete bibliography is here]
Schiller, F. C. S. Riddles of the Sphinx: A Study in the Philosophy of Evolution by a Troglodyte. London: Swan, Sonnenschein, and Co., 1891. 2nd ed., 1894. 3rd revised edition, Riddles of the Sphinx: A Study in the Philosophy of Humanism, with a new subtitle and two more appendixes. London: Swan, Sonnenschein, and Co.; New York: Macmillan, 1910. Reprinted, New York: Greenwood Press, 1968. 478 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Axioms as Postulates." In Personal Idealism, ed. Henry Sturt (London and New York: Macmillan, 1902), pp. 47-133.
Schiller, F. C. S. Humanism: Philosophical Essays. London and New York: Macmillan, 1903. 2nd ed., with four new chapters, 1912. 374 pp. Four essays, with some from Studies in Humanism (1907), were translated by Rudolf Eisler for inclusion in Humanismus: Beifräge zu einer pragmafischen Philosophie (Leipzig: Werner Klinkhardt, 1911).
Schiller, F. C. S. Studies in Humanism. London and New York: Macmillan, 1907. 2nd ed., 1912. 492 pp. Translated into French by S. Jankélévitch as Étude sur l’humanisme (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1909). Nine essays were translated by Rudolf Eisler for inclusion in Humanismus: Beifräge zu einer pragmafischen Philosophie (Leipzig: Werner Klinkhardt, 1911).
Schiller, F. C. S. Plato or Protagorus? Oxford: Blackwell; London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1908. 31 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Is Mr. Bradley Becoming a Pragmatist?" Mind 17.3 (July 1908): 370-383.
Schiller, F. C. S. "The Rationalistic Conception of Truth." Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 9 (1909): 85-99.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Why Pluralism?" Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 9 (1909): 193-201.
Schiller, F. C. S. "The Present Phase of ‘Idealist’ Philosophy." Mind 19.1 (Jan 1910): 30-45.
Schiller, F. C. S. Formal Logic: A Scientific and Social Problem. London: Macmillan, 1912. 2nd ed., 1931. 423 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Relevance." Mind 21.2 (April 1912): 153-166.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Realism, Pragmatism, and William James." Mind 25.4 (Oct 1915): 516-524.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Scientific Discovery and Logical Proof." In Studies in the History and Method of Science, vol. 1, ed. Charles Joseph Singer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), pp. 235-289.
Schiller, F. C. S. "The Meaning of ‘Meaning’." Mind 29.4 (Oct 1920): 385-414.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Hypothesis." In Studies in the History and Method of Science, vol. 2, ed. Charles Joseph Singer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. 2, pp. 414-446.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Mr. Russell’s Psychology." Journal of Philosophy 19.11 (25 May 1922): 281-292.
Schiller, F. C. S. Problems of Belief. London: Hodder and Stoughton; New York: G. H. Doran, 1924. 194 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Psychology and Logic." In Psychology and the Sciences, ed. William Brown (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1924), pp. 53-70.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Why Humanism?" In Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal Statements, First Series, ed. J. H. Muirhead (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1924), pp. 385-410.
Schiller, F. C. S. "The Origin of Bradley’s Scepticism." Mind 34.2 (April 1925): 217-223.
Schiller, F. C. S. "William James and the Will to Believe." Journal of Philosophy 24.16 (4 Aug 1927): 437-440.
Schiller, F. C. S. Logic for Use: An Introduction to the Voluntarist Theory of Knowledge. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1929. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1930. 469 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "Is the Distinction between Moral Rightness and Wrongness Ultimate?" In Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Philosophy, ed. Gilbert Ryle, held at Oxford, England, 16 September 1930 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931. Rpt., Nendeln und Leichtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1968), pp. 319-323.
Schiller, F. C. S. "The Value of Formal Logic." Mind 41.1 (Jan 1932): 53-71.
Schiller, F. C. S. Must Philosophers Disagree? And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. London and New York: Macmillan, 1934. 359 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. Our Human Truths. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939. 371 pp.
Schiller, F. C. S. "A Group of F. C. S. Schiller Letters." Personalist 30 (1949): 385-392.
Schiller, F. C. S. Humanistic Pragmatism: The Philosophy of F. C. S. Schiller. Edited by Rueben Abel. New York: Free Press, 1966. 347 pp.
Depositories of Schiller's Papers
Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller Papers (Collection 191). Department of Special Collections, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. Consult the on-line finding aid.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. San Marino, California.
Hoose Memorial Library of Philosophy. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Secondary Literature
Slosson, Edwin E. “F. C. S. Schiller.” In Six Major Prophets (Boston: Little Brown, 1917), pp. 190-233.
Marrett, R. R. "Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller." Proceedings of the British Academy 23 (1937): 538-550.
McKie, J. I. "Dr. F. C. S. Schiller (1864-1937)." Mind 47.1 (January 1938): 135-139.
White, Stephen S. A Comparison of the Philosophies of F. C. S. Schiller and John Dewey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940.
Flewelling, Ralph Tyler. "James, Schiller, and Personalism." Personalist 23 (1942): 172-181.
Henry, Arthur. "The Social Attitudes of F. C. S. Schiller." Personalist 25 (1944): 256-259.
Searles, Herbert L. "The Philosophy of F. C. S. Schiller." Personalist 35 (1954): 14-24.
Abel, Reuben. The Pragmatic Humanism of F. C. S. Schiller. New York: King's Crown Press, 1955.
Yolton, John W. "F. C. S. Schiller's Pragmatism and British Empiricism." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 11.1 (September 1950): 40-57.
Abel, Reuben. "F. C. S. Schiller and Pragmatism." Personalist 45.3 (July 1964): 316-325.
Winetrout, Kenneth. "F. C. S. Schiller (1864-1937): Some Centennial Thoughts." Personalist 45.3 (July 1964): 301-315.
Winetrout, Kenneth. F. C. S. Schiller and the Dimensions of Pragmatism. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1967.
Dewey, John. "F. C. S. Schiller: An Unpublished Memorial by John Dewey." Edited by Allan Shields. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 3 (1967): 51-54.
Searles, Herbert L. and Allan Shields. A Bibliography of the Works of F. C. S. Schiller. San Diego: San Diego State College Press, 1969.
Scott, Frederick J. D. "Peirce and Schiller and their Correspondence." Journal of the History of Philosophy 11 (1973): 363-386.
Shields, Allan. "Some Impressions of F. C. S. Schiller." Personalist 55 (1974): 290-297.
Thayer, H. Standish. Meaning and Action: A Critical History of Pragmatism, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981.
Stack, George J. "Nietzsche's Influence on Pragmatic Humanism." Journal of the History of Philosophy 20.4 (October 1982): 369-406.
Barnouw, Jeffrey. "'Aesthetic' for Schiller and Peirce: A Neglected Origin of Pragmatism." Journal of the History of Ideas 49 (1988): 607-632.