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Rebecca Goldstein

American philosopher and novelist (born 1950)

Summary

American philosopher and novelist (born 1950)

FieldValue
imageRebecca Goldstein.jpg
nameRebecca Goldstein
birth_nameRebecca Newberger
birth_date
birth_placeWhite Plains, New York, U.S.
educationBarnard College (BA)
Princeton University (PhD)
institutionsColumbia University
Rutgers University
Trinity College
Harvard University
New York University
spouse
children{{unbulleted listYael Goldstein Love (novelist)
Danielle Blau (poet)<ref>{{cite webtitleSheldon Goldsteinurl=https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/math436/projects/RiosP.pdfwebsite=Rutgers University, Department of Mathematics}}
</ref><ref name"Kadish2012"
{{cite weblast1Kadishfirst1=Racheltitle=The Physics of Fiction, the Music of Philosophy: an Interview with Rebecca Newberger Goldsteinurl=https://blog.pshares.org/the-physics-of-fiction-the-music-of-philosophy-an-interview-with-rebecca-newberger-goldstein/website=Ploughsharespublisher=Emerson Collegedate=2012archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120032729/https://blog.pshares.org/the-physics-of-fiction-the-music-of-philosophy-an-interview-with-rebecca-newberger-goldstein/archive-date=January 20, 2021}}
{{cite webtitleNovelist Rebecca Goldstein – The Mind-Body Problemurl=https://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/rebecca_goldstein.htmwebsite=lukeford.netdate=2006}}

Princeton University (PhD) Rutgers University Trinity College Harvard University New York University Danielle Blau (poet)

Rebecca Goldstein ( Newberger; born February 23, 1950) is an American philosopher and novelist. She has written ten books, both fiction and nonfiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science.

In her three nonfiction works, she has shown an affinity for philosophical rationalism, as well as a conviction that philosophy, like science, makes progress, and that scientific progress is itself supported by philosophical arguments.

Increasingly, in her talks and interviews, she has been exploring what she has called "mattering theory" as an alternative to traditional utilitarianism. This theory is a continuation of her idea of "the mattering map", first suggested in her novel The Mind–Body Problem. The concept of the mattering map has been widely adopted in contexts as diverse as cultural criticism, psychology, and behavioral economics.

Goldstein is a MacArthur Fellow, and has received the National Humanities Medal and the National Jewish Book Award.

Early life and education

Goldstein, born Rebecca Newberger, grew up in White Plains, New York. She was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. She has one older brother, who is an Orthodox rabbi, and a younger sister, Sarah Stern. An older sister, Mynda Barenholtz, died in 2001. She did her undergraduate work at City College of New York, UCLA, and Barnard College, where she graduated as valedictorian in 1972. After earning her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University, where she studied with Thomas Nagel and wrote a dissertation titled "Reduction, Realism, and the Mind", she returned to Barnard as a professor of philosophy.

Career

In 1983, Goldstein published her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem, a serio-comic tale of the conflict between emotion and intelligence, combined with reflections on the nature of mathematical genius, the challenges faced by intellectual women, and Jewish tradition and identity. Goldstein said she wrote the book to "insert 'real life' intimately into the intellectual struggle. In short, I wanted to write a philosophically motivated novel."

Her second novel, The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind (1989), was also set in academia. Her third novel, The Dark Sister (1993), was a fictionalization of family and professional issues in the life of William James. She followed it with a short-story collection, Strange Attractors (1993), which was a National Jewish Honor Book and New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A fictional mother, daughter, and granddaughter introduced in two of the stories in that collection became the main characters of Goldstein's next novel, Mazel (1995), which won the National Jewish Book Award and the 1995 Edward Lewis Wallant Award.

A MacArthur Fellowship in 1996 led to the writing of Properties of Light (2000), a ghost story about love, betrayal, and quantum physics. Her most recent novel is 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction (2010), and The Christian Science Monitor named it the best book of fiction of 2010.

Goldstein has written two biographical studies: Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel (2005); and Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (2006). Betraying Spinoza combined her continuing interest in Jewish ideas, history, and identity with an increasing focus on secularism, humanism, and atheism. Goldstein called the book "the eighth book I'd published, but [the] first in which I took the long-delayed and irrevocable step of integrating my private and public selves". Together with 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, it established her as a prominent figure in the humanist movement, part of a wave of "new new atheists" marked by less divisive rhetoric and a greater representation of women.

In 2014, Goldstein published Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away, an exploration of the historical roots and contemporary relevance of philosophy.

In addition to Barnard, Goldstein has taught at Columbia, Rutgers, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and since 2014, she has been a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities in London. In 2016, she was a visiting professor in the English department at New York University. In 2011, she delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Yale University, "The Ancient Quarrel: Philosophy and Literature". She serves on the Council on Values of the World Economic Forum, and on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America.

Goldstein's writing has also appeared in chapters in a number of edited books, in journals including The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Tikkun, Commentary, and in blog format in The Washington Post's "On Faith" section.

Personal life

Goldstein married her first husband, physicist Sheldon Goldstein, in 1969, and they divorced in 1999. They are the parents of the novelist Yael Goldstein Love and poet Danielle Blau. In a 2006 interview with Luke Ford, Goldstein said:

In 2007, Goldstein married cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker.

Awards and fellowships

  • 2014 National Humanities Medal (presented September 10, 2015, at the White House by President Barack Obama)
  • 2014 Richard Dawkins Award
  • 2013 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
  • 2013 Moment Magazine Creativity Award
  • 2012 Franke Visiting Fellow, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
  • 2011 Humanist of the Year awarded April 2011 by the American Humanist Association
  • 2011 Freethought Heroine awarded October 2011 by the Freedom from Religion Foundation
  • 2011 Miller Scholar, Santa Fe Institute
  • Best Fiction Book of 2010 ("36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction"), Christian Science Monitor
  • Humanist Laureate, awarded by the International Academy of Humanism, 2008
  • Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2006–2007
  • Guggenheim Fellow, 2006–2007
  • Koret Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought, 2006, for Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us Modernity
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005
  • MacArthur Fellow, 1996
  • National Jewish Book Award, 1995, for Mazel
  • Edward Lewis Wallant Award, 1995, for Mazel
  • Whiting Award, 1991

Bibliography

Fiction

  • The Mind-Body Problem (1983)
  • The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind (1989)
  • The Dark Sister (1993)
  • Mazel (1995)
  • Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics (2000)
  • Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction (2010)

Short stories

  • Strange Attractors: Stories (1993)

Nonfiction

  • Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel (2005)
  • Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (2006)
  • Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away (2014)
  • The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us (2026)

References

References

  1. Communications, NYU Web. "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Named 2014 National Humanities Medal Recipient".
  2. Lightman, Alan. (March 15, 2003). "Art That Transfigures Science". The New York Times.
  3. Schillinger, Liesl. "Prove It".
  4. Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger. (April 14, 2014). "How Philosophy Makes Progress".
  5. Anthony, Andrew. (October 19, 2014). "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein: "Science is our best answer, but it takes a philosophical argument to prove that"". The Observer.
  6. (July 26, 2019). "Feminism, Religion, and 'Mattering'".
  7. (August 27, 2014). "The Machinery of Moral Progress: An Interview with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein – TheHumanist.com".
  8. (1992). "We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture". Routledge.
  9. (2010). "Cultural Studies in the Future Tense". Duke University Press.
  10. (2013). "The Mattering Map: Integrating The Complexities of Knowledge, Experience and Meaning". Psychology of Women Quarterly.
  11. "Understanding Choice, Explaining Behavior: Essays in Honour of Ole-Jørgen Skog". Oslo Academic Press.
  12. (September 2, 2015). "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein".
  13. "Our Lab {{!}} Barnard Year of Science".
  14. "Biographical Sketch".
  15. "Rebecca Goldstein web site".
  16. Reichel, Sabine. (May 21, 1989). "Of Jews and Germans: The Conflict Unresolved : THE LATE-SUMMER PASSION OF A WOMAN OF MIND".
  17. Goldstein, Rebecca. (1993). "Strange Attractors: Stories". Viking.
  18. Dickstein, Lore. (October 29, 1995). "World of Our Mothers". [[The New York Times]].
  19. "Past Winners".
  20. McAlpin, Heller. (November 23, 2010). "People Are Talking About These Five Books". [[National Public Radio]].
  21. Kehe, Marjorie. (December 1, 2010). "Best books of 2010: fiction". The Christian Science Monitor.
  22. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. (December 22, 2015). "Flourishing in the Company of Like-Minded People". The Humanist.
  23. "Atheists – naughty and nice – should define themselves". The Washington Post.
  24. Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, "[http://www.sagecenter.ucsb.edu/distinguished-fellows/2013-2014 Distinguished Fellows for 2013–2014] {{Webarchive. link. (2018-06-12 ")
  25. (September 3, 2015). ""Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Named 2014 National Humanities Medal Recipient". [[New York University]].
  26. "Global Future Councils".
  27. [https://www.secular.org/board Board]
  28. "Articles, Chapters & Stories – Rebecca Newberger Goldstein".
  29. "Rebecca Goldstein". www.faithstreet.com.
  30. Luke Ford, [http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/rebecca_goldstein.htm "Interview with Novelist Rebecca Goldstein – The Mind-Body Problem"], conducted by phone April 11, 2006, transcript posted at lukeford.net
  31. Crace, John. (June 17, 2008). "Interview: Harvard University's Steven Pinker". The Guardian.
  32. (September 2, 2015). "President Obama Awards 2014 National Humanities Medal".
  33. [https://richarddawkins.net/2014/08/rebecca-goldstein-receives-the-richard-dawkins-award-at-the-atheist-alliance-of-america-convention/ "Rebecca Goldstein receives the Richard Dawkins Award at the Atheist Alliance of America convention]
  34. (January 5, 2017). "Rebecca Goldstein {{!}} The Montgomery Fellows".
  35. "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein".
  36. "Romancing Spinoza {{!}} Whitney Humanities Center".
  37. (June 10, 2011). "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein: secular humanist with a soul". The Christian Science Monitor.
  38. Seering, Lauryn. (April 2011). "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein – Freedom From Religion Foundation".
  39. "The Miller Scholarship {{!}} Santa Fe Institute".
  40. "Redirect".
  41. (2018). "Fellows – Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study".
  42. (2017). "Jim Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation – Fellows".
  43. "Koret Foundation -".
  44. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter G". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  45. "Rebecca Goldstein – MacArthur Foundation".
  46. "Edward Lewis Wallant Award {{!}} University of Hartford".
  47. "Rebecca Newberger Goldstein bio".
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