Wright, William Kelley, 1877-1956
Dates
- Existence: 1877 - 1956
Biography
William K. Wright was born on 18 April 1877 in Canton, Illinois. Upon completing his secondary education at Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, Wright attended Amherst College from 1895 to 1897 and then earned his BA from the University of Chicago in 1899. He returned to the University of Chicago after five years in the Canton business sector, completing his PhD in philosophy in 1906. His dissertation, “The Ethical Significance of Pleasure, Feeling, and Happiness in Modern Non-Hedonistic Systems,” was published the following year. He pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Freiburg in 1909 and at Oxford and the University of London in 1912-1913. Wright held philosophy positions at University of Texas in 1906–1907, the University of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, the University of Wisconsin from 1909 to 1911, Indiana University in 1911–1912, and Cornell University from 1913 to 1916. In 1916 he became a professor of philosophy at Dartmouth College. Wright was promoted to full professor in 1923, and in 1946 he was named Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. He served as President of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division in 1945–6. Wright retired in 1947, and died on 29 March 1956 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
William Wright papers
William Wright (1877-1956), professor of philosophy. Dartmouth Honorary Degree 1923. The collection contains correspondence, articles, financial documents, teaching materials including grade books, class records, student essays and lecture notes as well as published writings by Wright and others. The material relates to his teaching and writing on philosophy.