C. I. Lewis

C. I. Lewis
BornApril 12, 1883
DiedFebruary 3, 1964 (1964-02-04) (aged 80)
Education
EducationHarvard University (BA, PhD)
ThesisThe Place of Intuition in Knowledge (1910)
Doctoral advisorJosiah Royce
Philosophical work
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolConceptual pragmatism
Analytic philosophy
Epistemic coherentism
Doctoral studentsBrand Blanshard, Nelson Goodman, Roderick Chisholm
Notable studentsNorman Malcolm
Nelson Goodman
Willard Van Orman Quine
Roderick Chisholm
Wilfrid Sellars
Roderick Firth
Robert Paul Wolff
Main interestsEpistemology
Logic
Ethics
Aesthetics
Notable ideasConceptual pragmatism
Symbolic modal logic
Lewis algebra
Qualia
Strict conditional

Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964) was an American academic philosopher. He is considered the progenitor of modern modal logic and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logician, he later branched into epistemology, and during the last 20 years of his life, he wrote much on ethics. The New York Times memorialized him as "a leading authority on symbolic logic and on the philosophic concepts of knowledge and value." He coined the term "Qualia" as used in philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive sciences.