John Hospers, American philosopher, first Libertarian Party presidential candidate (1972) died he was , 93.

John Hospers was an American philosopher died he was , 93.  In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, and the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 U.S. Presidential election.


(June 9, 1918 – June 12, 2011)

Education and career

Born in Pella, Iowa, Hospers graduated from Central College. Hospers earned advanced degrees from the University of Iowa and Columbia University. He conducted research, wrote, and taught in areas of philosophy, including aesthetics and ethics. He taught philosophy at Brooklyn College and at the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Philosophy, where for many years he was chairman of the philosophy department.^[3]
Hospers was professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California.
In 2002, an hour-long video about Hospers' life, work, and philosophy was released by the Liberty Fund of Indianapolis, as part of its Classics of Liberty series.^[4]

Works

Hospers' books include: Meaning and Truth in the Arts (1946), Introductory Readings in Aesthetics (1969), Artistic Expression (1971), Law and the Market (1985), Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (now in the 4th edition, 1996), Human Conduct (now in its 3rd edition, 1995), Understanding the Arts (1982), and Libertarianism – A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971). He was editor of three anthologies, and contributed to books edited by others. He authored about 150 articles in various scholarly and popular journals.
Hospers was editor of The Personalist (1968–1982) and The Monist (1982–1992), and was a senior editor at Liberty magazine.^[5]

Friendship with Ayn Rand

During the period he taught philosophy at Brooklyn College, Hospers was much interested in Objectivism. He appeared on radio shows with Ayn Rand, and devoted considerable attention to her ideas in his ethics textbook Human Conduct.^[6]
According to Rand's biographer, Barbara Branden, Hospers met Rand when she addressed the student body at Brooklyn College. They became friends, and had lengthy philosophical conversations. Rand's discussions with Hospers contributed to her decision to write nonfiction. Hospers read Atlas Shrugged, which he considered an aesthetic triumph. Hospers also became convinced of the validity of Rand's moral and political views, but disagreed with her about issues of epistemology, the subject of their extensive correspondence.^[7] Rand broke with Hospers after he criticized her talk on "Art as Sense of Life," before the American Society of Aesthetics at Harvard.^[8]

Politics

In the 1972 U.S. Presidential election, John Hospers and Tonie Nathan were the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, respectively, of the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party was poorly organized, and Hospers and Nathan managed to get on the ballot in only two states^[9] (Washington and Colorado), receiving 8715 popular votes.^[10] They received one electoral vote from faithless elector Roger MacBride, a Republican from Virginia, resulting in Nathan becoming the first woman to have received an electoral vote in a United States presidential election.^[9]

[edit] Electoral history

United States presidential election, 1972

• Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew (R) (inc.)—47,168,710 (60.7%) and 520 electoral votes (49 states carried)
• George McGovern/Sargent Shriver (D)—29,173,222 (37.5%) and 17 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried)
• John Hospers/Theodora Nathan (Libertarian)—8,715 (0.0%) and 1 electoral vote
• John G. Schmitz/Thomas J. Anderson (American Independent)—1,100,868 (1.4%)
• Linda Jenness/Andrew Pulley (Socialist Workers)—83,380 (0.1%)
• Benjamin Spock/Julius Hobson (People's)—78,759 (0.1%)
• Others—135,414 (0.2%)

 

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