Scienceאברהם קפלן

Abraham Kaplan

Abraham Kaplan was an American Jewish philosopher, known for his 1964 book The Conduct of Inquiry on the behavioral sciences.

1918 to 1993The Conduct of InquiryPhilosophy of the behavioral sciencesDean at the University of Haifa

Born: 11 June 1918, Odesa
Died: 19 June 1993, Los Angeles
Occupation: philosopher, university teacher, dean, sociologist
Education: University of California, Los Angeles, University of St. Thomas

Abraham Kaplan was born in 1918 in Odesa

Abraham Kaplan was born in Odesa in 1918. His father, Joseph J. Kaplan, was a rabbi, and his mother was Chava Kaplan. The family moved to the United States in 1923, and he became a citizen in 1930.

He graduated in chemistry from the College of St. Thomas in 1937. In 1942 he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1939 he married Iona Judith Wax, a child psychologist, and they had two children.

He taught at New York University from 1940 to 1945 and then at UCLA, where he became a professor of philosophy in 1952 and chaired the department. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1962 to 1972. He also taught at Harvard, where Stanley Cavell was his student.

In 1950 he published Power and Society with Harold Lasswell, and in 1964 The Conduct of Inquiry. In 1966 Time magazine named him one of 10 teachers it selected in the United States. He traveled to India, Israel and Japan to study their cultures.

In 1978 he moved to the University of Haifa, where he was dean of the faculty of social sciences. From 1977 to 1984 he was also on the faculty of the RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica. He died in 1993.