John McCumber

John McCumber
Born (1945-07-27) July 27, 1945
Education
EducationUniversity of Toronto (PhD)
ThesisThe Communication of Philosophical Truth in Hegel and Heidegger (1978)
Doctoral advisorGraeme Nicholson
Other advisorsH. S. Harris, K. L. Schmitz, E. L. Fackenheim[1]
Philosophical work
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolGerman Idealism
InstitutionsUniversity of California Los Angeles
Websitehttps://www.johnmccumber.com/

John McCumber (born July 27, 1945) is an American distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Germanic Languages at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[2][3][4]

Life and works

McCumber was born and raised in Champaign, Illinois, where his family worked as grocers. He earned a BA in Philosophy from Pomona College, followed by an MA and a PhD from the University of Toronto. He did his doctoral dissertation on "The Communication of Philosophical Truth in Hegel and Heidegger". Dan Goldstick, Leonard Boyle, Phillip H. Wiebe, Frank Cunningham, Henry Pietersma were among the dissertation committee members.[4] From 1974 to 1997, McCumber taught philosophy at several institutions, including the University of Toronto, the University of Michigan–Dearborn, The New School for Social Research, and Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he received the prestigious Koldyke Chair, the highest teaching award in the College of Arts and Sciences. However, during his tenure there, a conflict involving Jürgen Habermas led to his departure from the philosophy department—an episode he plans to detail in his forthcoming memoir Vertiginous Instincts.[2][3][4]

After leaving philosophy, McCumber joined Northwestern’s German Department. Three years later, he moved to UCLA, where he taught across multiple departments—Classics, Philosophy, Political Science, and Germanic Languages—before settling fully in Germanic Languages once it expanded its offerings in German philosophy. He is now a Distinguished Professor and Chair of that department.[2][3]

Selected publications

Monographs

  • Poetic Interaction: Language, Freedom, Reason. University of Chicago Press. 19 January 1989. ISBN 978-0-226-55703-8.[5][6][7][8][9]
  • The Company of Words: Hegel, Language, and Systematic Philosophy. Northwestern University Press. 1993-03-04. ISBN 978-0-8101-1082-3.[10][11]
  • On Philosophy. 2013. doi:10.1515/9780804783491. ISBN 978-0-8047-8349-1.[12][13][14][15][16]
  • Understanding Hegel's Mature Critique of Kant. Stanford University Press. 2014. doi:10.2307/j.ctvqsf0xm. ISBN 978-0-8047-8545-7. JSTOR j.ctvqsf0xm.[17]
  • The Philosophy Scare. 2016. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226396415.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-226-39638-5.[18][19]

Articles

References

  1. ^ McCUMBER, John (1979). "Hegel's Philosophical Languages". Hegel-Studien. 14: 183–196. ISSN 0073-1587. JSTOR 26596376.
  2. ^ a b c "johnmccumber.com". Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  3. ^ a b c Languages, The Department of European; Court, Transcultural Studies is part of the Humanities Division within UCLA College 10745 Dickson; Angeles, 334 Royce Hall | Los; Regents, CA 90095 University of California © 2025 UC. "John McCumber". UCLA European Languages & Transcultural Studies. Retrieved 2025-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c "THE COMMUNICATION OF PHILOSOPHICAL TRUTH IN HEGEL AND HEIDEGGER. - ProQuest". www.proquest.com. ProQuest 302911245. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  5. ^ D'Angelo, Paolo (1991). Desmond, William; Luque, M. Isabel Ramirez; Bras, G rard; McCumber, John (eds.). "Hegels sthetik zwischen System und Emanzipation". Hegel-Studien. 26: 275–281. ISSN 0073-1587. JSTOR 26598140.
  6. ^ Switzer, Robert (1990). "Review of Poetic Interaction". The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. 4 (4): 354–360. ISSN 0891-625X. JSTOR 25669974.
  7. ^ Wright, Kathleen (1992). "Review of Poetic Interaction: Language, Freedom, Reason". The Philosophical Review. 101 (3): 714–717. doi:10.2307/2186090. ISSN 0031-8108. JSTOR 2186090.
  8. ^ Ackerman, R. D. (1990). "Poetic Interaction: Language, Freedom, Reason (review)". Philosophy and Literature. 14 (1): 219–220. doi:10.1353/phl.1990.0095. ISSN 1086-329X.
  9. ^ Mitscherling, Jeff (1990). "John McCumber, "Poetic Interaction: Language, Freedom, Reason."". Philosophy in Review. 10 (6): 245–247. ISSN 1920-8936.
  10. ^ Stern, Robert (1994-01-01). "The Company of: Words: Hegel, Language, and Systematic Philosophy, by John McCumber". Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology. 25 (2): 193–194. doi:10.1080/00071773.1994.11007063. ISSN 0007-1773.
  11. ^ Dove, K. R (1994). "The Company of Words: Hegel, Language, and Systematic Philosophy (review)". Journal of the History of Philosophy. 32 (4): 681–682. ISSN 1538-4586.
  12. ^ Casey, Edward S. (2014-08-21). "On Speaking Matter, Boundary, and Place: Reflections on John McCumber's On Philosophy: Notes from a Crisis". Philosophy Today. doi:10.5840/philtoday201481543.
  13. ^ Sushytska, Julia (2014-09-04). "Beyond Ousiodic Ontology: Reflections on John McCumber's On Philosophy: Notes from a Crisis". Philosophy Today. 58 (4): 729–744. doi:10.5840/philtoday201481544.
  14. ^ McCumber, John (2014-09-04). "Speaking of the Speaking of Matter: Responses to Casey and Sushytska". Philosophy Today. 58 (4): 745–761. doi:10.5840/philtoday201481545.
  15. ^ Hamblet, Wendy C. (2013). "John McCumber, On Philosophy: Notes from a Crisis, Stanford University Press, 2013, 288pp., $25.00 (pbk), ISBN 9780804781435". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  16. ^ Koch, Christofer; Philosophy Documentation Center (2016). "On Philosophy: Notes From a Crisis, by John McCumber". Teaching Philosophy. 39 (3): 381–384. doi:10.5840/teachphil201639370. ISSN 0145-5788.
  17. ^ Siebers, Johan; McCumber, John (2015). "Review of Understanding Hegel?s Mature Critique of Kant, McCumberJohn". Hegel-Studien. 48: 291–296. ISSN 0073-1587. JSTOR 26595885.
  18. ^ Reisch, George A. (2016). "The Philosophy Scare: The Politics of Reason in the Early Cold War". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Archived from the original on 2024-08-10. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  19. ^ Jaschik, Scott. "'The Philosophy Scare'". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
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