Copleston, Frederick Charles

▪ 1995

      British Jesuit priest and scholar (b. April 10, 1907, Taunton, Somerset, England—d. Feb. 3, 1994, London, England), wrote the nine-volume work A History of Philosophy (1946-74), a concise, clearly written, and objective overview that became a standard introductory philosophy text for thousands of university students, particularly in its U.S. paperback edition (1962-77). Copleston attended Marlborough College, from which he was expelled after he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, and St. John's College, Oxford. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1930 and was ordained in 1937. In 1939 he was named professor of the history of philosophy at Heythrop College (later a school of the University of London). He retained that position until he was elevated to principal of Heythrop (1970-74) and dean of the faculty of theology (1972-74). He also taught metaphysics on a regular basis at the Gregorian University in Rome (1952-69) and served as a visiting professor at the University of Santa Clara, Calif. (1975-82). In 1946 Copleston published A History of Philosophy: Greece and Rome, the first book of what he originally envisioned as a three-volume survey. His other books include Nietzsche (1942), Philosophies and Cultures (1980), and Philosophy in Russia (1986), which many scholars felt should have been released as volume 10 in the History series. Copleston was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.

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