Morris Weitz

Who was Morris Weitz?

Morris Weitz was an American aesthetician. He received his doctorate from the University of Michigan. During the course of his career he taught at Vassar College, at Ohio State University and at Brandeis University. He married Margaret Weitz, a notable academic on French issues. Their son, Richard Weitz is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Weitz' groundbreaking publication is titled "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics." This work arguably spurred much debate within the philosophy of art and is part of a larger movement known as anti-essentialism. This movement was popular in the 1950s and is similarly defended by W.B. Gallie, W.E. Kennick and Paul Ziff. Weitz's piece, however, is arguably the most popular anti-essentialist pieces, as well as one of the most debated pieces in twentieth century aesthetics. Weitz argued against the traditional essentialist methodology and proposed using Wittgenstein's family resemblance argument as an alternate method for identifying art objects. Weitz proposed that in asking "what is art?" aestheticians were really asking the wrong question altogether.