C. Douglas McGee

C. Douglas McGee (1926-1993) was a 20th-Century American professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College.

Charles Douglas McGee was born in 1926. He spent his early years in Oklahoma and served in Army infantry during World War II. In 1949, he graduated from Northwestern University and in 1950 obtained an MA. In 1957, he received a doctorate from Harvard University.

McGee taught at Vassar College for nearly 10 years.

In 1963, he joined the Bowdoin College faculty as associate professor of philosophy. In 1967, he was promoted to full professor.He served as chairman of Bowdoin's department of philosophy several times.In June 30, 1993, he became professor emeritus.

McGee married Phoebe Hurley, and they had three daughters and two sons.

In 1953, while a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, McGee wrote a letter to Life magazine in response to the essay "Is Academic Freedom in Danger?" by Whittaker Chambers, stating:

Sirs:
When a mob is in action, the number of its leaders is less important than the nature and consequence of their influence.The extent of the influence of those now alleged to be threatening academic freedom is not to be measured by the number of investigating congressmen, nor even in the comic or unpleasant posturings of local vigilante groups, but in the confused and suspicious attitude of the American public.A citizenry led to mistrust academic freedom by some political leaders and some of its press is only too likely to rise in righteous panic and crush those freedoms.If academic people seem over sensitive, it is because they occupy exposed positions, and in a general attack are not only the first to falI but may fall long before their fellow citizens discover an assault is under way.Though Mr. Chambers would have us believe alarms from academic outposts are false, his "argument" fails to support that conclusion.
C. Douglas McGee
Cambridge, MA

McGee died age 67 on December 22, 1993, in Kirchberg am Wechsel, Neunkirchen district, Lower Austria, Austria, from a heart attack.

In his book The Recovery of Meaning, McGee addressed a crisis in the fields of ethics and theory of knowledge.

Essays

• "Letters to the Editor:Academic Freedom" in Life (1953)
• "Controversy: Replies to Bettelheim's 'Schooling is Not Enough'" in New York Review of Books (1964)
• "Who Means What by 'Synonymy'?" in Inquiry : An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (1959)
• "A simple sketch of language" in Journal of Philosophy (1960)
• "Pre-Ceremonial Relations" in The Philosophical Quarterly (1963)
• "Fun, games and natural language" in Australasian Journal of Philosophy (1964)
• "A Modest Proposal" in Chicago Review (1964)
• "A Dispositional Interpretation of Criteria in Mind" in The Philosophy of C.I. Lewis (1968)

Books

• The Recovery of Meaning:An Essay on the Good Life (1966)

• Bowdoin College Photo of C. Douglas McGee (undated)