science

Marjorie Grene

Marjorie Grene is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marjorie Grene rather than just read about it. In short: Marjorie Glicksman Grene (December 13, 1910 – March 16, 2009) was an American philosopher. She wrote on existentialism and the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of biology.

Key takeaways

Marjorie Grene belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Marjorie Grene to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Marjorie Grene from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marjorie Glicksman Grene (December 13, 1910 – March 16, 2009) was an American philosopher. She wrote on existentialism and the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of biology. She taught at the University of California, Davis from 1965 to 1978. From 1988 until her death, she was Honorary University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Tech.

Life and career Grene obtained her first degree, in zoology, from Wellesley College in 1931. She then obtained (from 1933–1935) an M.A. and then a doctorate in philosophy from Radcliffe College. This was, she said, "as close as females in those days got to Harvard". Grene studied with Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, leaving Germany in 1933. She was in Denmark in 1935, and then at the University of Chicago. After losing her position there during World War II, she spent 15 years as a mother and farmer. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976. Her New York Times obituary said Grene was "one of the first philosophers to raise questions about the synthetic theory of evolution, which combines Darwin's theory of evolution, Mendel's understanding of genetic inheritance and more recent discoveries by molecular biologists". Along with David Depew, she wrote the first history of the philosophy of biology. In 2002, she was the first female philosopher to have a volume of the Library of Living Philosophers devoted to her. In 1995, the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology established a prize for young scholars in Grene's name, writing: "Not only does her work in the history and philosophy of biology exemplify the strong spirit of interdisciplinary work fundamental to the ISHPSSB, but she played a central role in bringing together diverse scholars of biology even before the formation of the Society."

Family From 1938 to 1961, Grene was married to David Grene, a classicist who farmed in Illinois and in his native Ireland. They had two children, Ruth Grene, a professor of plant physiology at Virginia Tech, and Nicholas Grene, a professor of English literature at Trinity College, Dublin.

Works Books authored

Dreadful Freedom: A Critique of Existentialism (1948) Reissued as Introduction to Existentialism (1959) Martin Heidegger (1957) A Portrait of Aristotle (1963) The Knower and the Known (1966) Approaches to a Philosophical Biology (1968) Sartre (1973) The Understanding of Nature: Essays In The Philosophy Of Biology (1974) Philosophy In and Out of Europe (1976) essays Descartes (1985) Descartes Among the Scholastics (1991) Aquinas Lecture 1991 Interactions. The Biological Context of Social Systems (1992) with Niles Eldredge A Philosophical Testament (1995) Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History (2004) with David Depew Works edited and translated

Philosophers Speak for Themselves: From Descartes To Kant. Readings in the Philosophy of the Renaissance and Enlightenment (1940) with Thomas Vernor Smith Reissued in two volumes: Descartes to Locke (1958) and Berkeley, Hume, Kant (1963) The World View of Physics by C. F. von Weizsäcker (1952) translator The Anatomy of Knowledge: Papers Presented to the Study Group on Foundations of Cultural Unity, Bowdoin College, 1965 and 1966; (1969) editor Knowing & Being: essays by Michael Polanyi, (1969) editor Toward a Unity of Knowledge (1969) editor Laughing and Crying: A Study of the Limits of Human Behavior by Helmuth Plessner (1970) translator with James Spencer Churchill Interpretations of Life and Mind: Essays Around the Problem of Reduction (1971) editor Spinoza : A Collection of Critical Essays (1973) editor Topics in the Philosophy of Biology (1976) editor with Everett Mendelsohn Dimensions Of Darwinism : Themes And Counterthemes In Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Theory (1983) editor Spinoza And The Sciences (1986) editor Muntu : African Culture and the Western World by Janheinz Jahn (1990) translator Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies (1995) editor with Roger Ariew The Mechanization of the Heart: Harvey and Descartes by Thomas Fuchs (2001) translator Malebranche's First and Last Critics: Simon Foucher and Dortous De Mairan (2002) with Richard A. Watson; translator Apology for Raymond Sebond by Montaigne (2003) translator with Roger Ariew Geoffroy Saint Hilaire by Hervé Le Guyader (2004) translator *For more complete details see "The Publications of Marjorie Grene" in her 1986 festschrift Human Nature and Natural Knowledge or Grene's C.V.

See also American philosophy List of American philosophers

References

Further reading The Philosophy of Marjorie Grene (2002), edited by Randall E. Auxier and Lewis Edwin Hahn

External links

The philosophy of Marjorie Grene 2003 profile by Sally Harris for Virginia Tech Magazine (Archived by Wayback Machine) An Interview with Marjorie Grene 2005 article by Benjamin Cohen for The Believer magazine. (Archived by Wayback Machine) IN MEMORIAM - Marjorie Glicksman Grene from the University Of California. In Memoriam: Marjorie Grene from Virginia Tech Daily (Archived by Wayback Machine) In Memoriam Marjorie Glicksman Grene (1910-2009) eulogy by Richard Burian and Roger Ariew for Isis. (Archived by Wayback Machine) Works by or about Marjorie Grene at the Internet Archive

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marjorie Grene

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marjorie Grene claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marjorie Grene before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marjorie Grene ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marjorie Grene

In research: Marjorie Grene appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marjorie Grene in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marjorie Grene is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century American Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marjorie Grene outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Marjorie Grene in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marjorie Grene means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Marjorie Grene in simple terms?

Marjorie Glicksman Grene (December 13, 1910 – March 16, 2009) was an American philosopher. She wrote on existentialism and the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of biology.

Why does Marjorie Grene matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marjorie Grene?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marjorie Grene.