The Definition of the Thing

A classic volume by a noted philosopher available again. John William Miller (1895-1978) taught at Williams College where from 1945 to 1960 he was Mark Hopkins Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. His extraordinary teaching is described in Masters: Portraits of Great Teachers edited by Joseph Epstein. While deeply indebted to Plato Kant and Hegel Miller arrived at a strikingly original reinterpretation of the history of philosophy which he believed resolved long-standing epistemological and moral problems generated by that history. In The Definition of the Thing an unusually provocative and original essay Miller had works out a number of the basic contentions of his mature philosophy.