Scheffler held B.A. and M.A. degrees in psychology from Brooklyn College, an M.H.L. and a D.H.L.(hon.) from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.[2] He defended his doctoral thesis, On Quotation, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952, where he studied with Nelson Goodman[3] and began teaching that year at Harvard University, where he spent his career. He retired in 1992.[4]
His main interests lay in the philosophical interpretation of language, symbolism, science and education. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a founding member of the National Academy of Education and a past president of both the Philosophy of Science Association and the Charles S. Peirce Society.[2]
Publications
His works have been translated from English into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Persian.[5]
Books
Scheffler, Israel. The Anatomy of Inquiry; Philosophical Studies in the Theory of Science. New York: Knopf, 1963. OCLC 526705
Scheffler, Israel. Science and Subjectivity. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. OCLC 374512
Scheffler, Israel. Conditions of Knowledge: An Introduction to Epistemology and Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978., ISBN978-0-226-73668-6
Scheffler, Israel. The Language of Education. Springfield: Ill, 1983. ISBN978-0-398-01656-2
Scheffler, Israel. Four Pragmatists: A Critical Introduction to Peirce, James, Mead, and Dewey. New York: Humanities Press, 1971. ISBN978-0-391-00351-4
Scheffler, Israel, Nelson Goodman, and Richard Rudner. Logic & Art. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1972.
Scheffler, Israel. Reason and Teaching. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. ISBN978-0-672-61253-4
Scheffler, Israel. Conditions of Knowledge. 1978. OCLC 464010934
Scheffler, Israel. Beyond the Letter: A Philosophical Inquiry into Ambiguity, Vagueness, and Metaphor in Language. International library of philosophy and scientific method. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979. ISBN978-0-7100-0315-7
Scheffler, Israel. Of Human Potential: An Essay in the Philosophy of Education. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. ISBN978-0-7102-0571-1
Scheffler, Israel. In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions and Other Essays in the Philosophy of Education. New York: Routledge, 1991. 9780415903646 (a Collection of articles spanning 1974 to 1990.)
Scheffler, Israel. Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. ISBN978-1-4051-9170-8
Autobiographies
Scheffler, Israel. Teachers of My Youth: An American Jewish Experience. Philosophy and education, v. 5. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995. ISBN978-0-7923-3232-9
Scheffler, Israel. Gallery of Scholars: A Philosopher's Recollections. Philosophy and education, v. 13. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004. ISBN978-1-4020-2710-9
^On quotation. WorldCat.Org, retrieved April 23, 2010
^Siegel, Harvey, and Israel Scheffler. Reason and Education: Essays in Honor of Israel Scheffler. Dordrecht [Netherlands]: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997.