Call Number:

C1520

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 55 boxes
• 26.4 linear feet
• 4.5 gb
• 1991 digital files

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); David Lewis Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1960-2001 (bulk) and 1945-2019 (inclusive)

Creator:

Lewis, David K. (David Kellogg), 1941-2001 and Lewis, Stephanie R.

Abstract:

David Kellogg Lewis (1941-2001) was an American philosopher who taught at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles and contributed to metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, decision theory, epistemology, meta-ethics, and aesthetics. Lewis's papers include over four decades of his correspondence with other philosophers and scholars, including David M. Armstrong, J. J. C. Smart, Frank Jackson, D. H. Mellor, M. J. Cresswell, Allen Hazen, John Bigelow, and others, as well as drafts of his articles, books, reviews, and unpublished writings with related correspondence, his undergraduate and graduate student papers and class notes, research materials from his time at the Hudson Institute, photographs of Lewis with friends and fellow philosophers, a group of files kept by the Australian philosopher David M. Armstrong regarding Lewis, papers of Stephanie R. Lewis, and family papers.

David Kellogg Lewis (1941-2001) was an American philosopher and professor at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles who made contributions to metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, decision theory, epistemology, meta-ethics, and aesthetics. Born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1941, Lewis completed his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College. After spending the 1959-1960 academic year abroad at St. Catherine's Society at Oxford University, where he attended lectures by J. L. Austin and was tutored by Iris Murdoch, Lewis switched his major from chemistry to philosophy. He went on to receive his M.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1967) in Philosophy from Harvard University, where he studied with W. V. Quine and Hilary Putnam. From 1962 to 1975, Lewis served part-time on the staff at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think-tank then dedicated to researching the technical aspects of nuclear weapons and disarmament policy issues. At the Hudson Institute, Lewis developed an interest in game theory that informed his dissertation, Conventions of Language, which he wrote under the supervision of W. V. Quine and later published.

Lewis taught at the University of California, Los Angeles beginning in 1966 and moved to Princeton in 1970, where he taught for the rest of his life. He was named Stuart Professor of Philosophy in 1995 and later appointed Class of 1943 University Professor of Philosophy in 1998. Lewis's published books include Convention (1969), Counterfactuals (1973), On the Plurality of Worlds (1986), and Parts of Classes (1991). Volumes of his collected papers include Philosophical Papers Vol. I (1983) and Philosophical Papers Vol. II (1986), published by Oxford University Press, and Papers in Philosophical Logic (1998), Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology (1999), and Papers in Social Philosophy (2000), published in Cambridge University Press's Cambridge Studies in Philosophy series. Lewis maintained close ties to the philosophical community in Australia, corresponding regularly with D. M. Armstrong, J. J. C. Smart, Frank Jackson, Allen Hazen, and others, and he spent summers there almost annually from 1971 up until shortly before his death in 2001. David Lewis's wife, Stephanie R. Lewis, also a philosopher and co-author of several papers with her husband, maintained David Lewis's papers and served as the executor of his literary estate following his death.

The papers consist primarily of David Lewis's writings and extensive correspondence with other philosophers and scholars. There are approximately sixteen thousand pages of Lewis's correspondence, both incoming and outgoing. Significant amounts of correspondence with David M. Armstrong, J. J. C. Smart, Frank Jackson, W. V. Quine, D. H. Mellor, M. J. Cresswell, Allen Hazen, and John Bigelow are included. Lewis's letters document lively philosophical debates and reflect the development of his thought across more than four decades. Lewis's writings include drafts of published articles and books, often along with publishing correspondence, reviews, notes, and marked copies of books related to each publication, including for his books Convention (1969), Counterfactuals (1973), On the Plurality of Worlds (1986), and Parts of Classes (1991), as well as for his collected works. A smaller amount of similar materials pertaining to his reviews and unpublished or posthumously published writings is also present, as are some of his undergraduate and graduate student papers and course materials and his research files and reports from his time as a researcher at the Hudson Institute in the 1960s. Several dozen digital prints of scanned photographs of David Lewis are also present, including portraits and group shots with friends and fellow philosophers, as well as a group of photocopied materials on David Lewis maintained by David M. Armstrong. Later additions include similar material, as well as academic and administrative files; papers of Stephanie R. Lewis, a philosopher who was married to David Lewis; family papers; and digital and audiovisual materials.

The collection is arranged into five series based on the existing organization of materials at the time they were acquired by the library.