26 Facts About Richard McKeon

Richard McKeon was an American philosopher and longtime professor at the University of Chicago.

Richard McKeon's ideas formed the basis for the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1934, Richard McKeon was appointed visiting professor of History at the University of Chicago, beginning a 40-year association with that university.

Richard McKeon later founded Chicago's interdisciplinary Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods.

Richard McKeon presided over the Western division of the American Philosophical Association in 1952, and over the International Institute of Philosophy from 1953 to 1957.

Richard McKeon was a central intellectual figure in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's early years.

Richard McKeon advised UNESCO when it studied the foundations of human rights and of the idea of democracy.

Richard McKeon was a pioneer American scholar of medieval philosophy and the history of science.

Richard McKeon was a prominent figure in the revival of rhetoric as an intellectual art, exploring the often problematic relation between philosophy and rhetoric.

Richard McKeon taught Aristotle throughout his career, insisted that his was a Greek Aristotle, not one seen through the eyes of later philosophers writing in Latin.

Richard McKeon investigated pluralism, cultural diversity, and problems of communication and community, at a time when such subjects were less than fashionable.

Notwithstanding, Richard McKeon distanced himself from "The Chicago School," which was mainly concerned with Neo-Aristotelian poetic theory.

Richard McKeon holds that the renaissance revolt against scholasticism involved Aristotle in an "associated discredit", and few outstanding modern philosophers took the pains to examine the grounds of the criticism or to re-examine the philosophy of Aristotle.

Richard McKeon was father to the literary critic Michael McKeon.

Richard McKeon published 158 articles over the span of seven decades.

Early in his academic career, Richard McKeon recognized that truth has no single expression.

Richard McKeon viewed the aim of pluralism as not achieving a monolithic identity but rather a diversity of opinion along with mutual tolerance.

Richard McKeon characterized his philosophy as a philosophy of culture, but it is humanistic, a philosophy of communications and the arts, and a philosophical rhetoric.

The pragmatism of Richard Rorty owes much to McKeon, his teacher.

Richard McKeon's operational method is a method of debate which allows one to refine their positions, and in turn, determining what limits their perception of an opponent's argument.

Richard McKeon's pluralism insists that we understand what a person means by what they say.

Richard McKeon believes that proper discussion can lead to agreement, courses of action, and in some cases to mutual understanding, if not, an eventual agreement on issues of ideology or philosophic belief.

Richard McKeon's philosophy is similar to rhetoric as conceived by Aristotle, whereby it has the power to be employed in any given situation as the available means of persuasion.

Richard McKeon sought to improve individual disciplines as he felt that they were meant to improve mankind.

Richard McKeon borrows traditional rhetorical terms to outline the principles of the new rhetoric and then leads them toward brighter avenues of discovery by enlarging Aristotle's traditional rhetorical categories and reintegrating philosophical dialectic.

Richard McKeon believes that the materials for doing this are topoi and schemata.