Description
Abraham Kaplan (1918-1993) was a philosopher, an author and an educator. His collection contains correspondence, articles,
lectures, speeches, book manuscripts, subject files, notes, and printed matter pertaining to his writings and academic career.
Background
Abraham Kaplan (1918-1993) was an American philosopher with a long and distinguished career. He was born June 11, 1918 to
parents Joseph J. (a Rabbi) and Chava (Lerner) Kaplan in Odessa, Ukraine. Kaplan and his family immigrated to the United States
in 1923 and he became a naturalized citizen in 1930. A student of philosopher Bertrand Russell, he graduated from the College
of St. Thomas in 1937, did graduate study at the University of Chicago from 1937-40, and received his Ph.D. from the University
of California, Los Angeles in 1942. He began his teaching career as an assistant professor for New York University from 1940-45.
He then went on to the University of California, Los Angeles to become an assistant professor from 1946-49, an associate professor
from 1949-52, a professor of philosophy from 1952-63, and the chair of the department from 1952-65. He also taught at the
University of Michigan from 1962-72 before he moved to the University of Haifa in Israel, where he became professor emeritus
in 1978. Besides giving many lectures across the globe, Kaplan held visiting distinguished professorships at over twelve universities
including the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
He devoted much of his time to organizations such as the American Philosophical Association (president of Pacific Division
1947-58) and the Association for Jewish Philosophy. He married Iona Judith Wax (a child psychologist) November 17, 1939 and
had two children: Karen Eva Kaplan Diskin and Jessica Aryia Kaplan Symonds.