Thomas Anderson Goudge | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Thomas Anderson Goudge

Thomas Anderson Goudge, philosopher (born 19 January 1910 in Halifax, NS; died 20 June 1999 in Toronto, ON).

A student of G.S. Brett at Toronto (PhD 1937), Goudge spent a year at Harvard during a time of intense interest in mathematical logic and philosophy of science there. Appointed to the University of Toronto (1938-76), he introduced these subjects into a curriculum focused on the history of philosophy. While chairman, expanding enrolment allowed him to appoint people to work in these and other areas of contemporary interest. His publications include a study of The Thought of C.S. Peirce (1950), a logician, philosopher of science and early pragmatist, and The Ascent of Life (1961), which maintains that evolutionary biology explains the world in a manner unlike, for example, that of physics. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.