{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Short description|American philosopher (1921–2018)}} {{Infobox academic|name=Herbert Fingarette|birth_date=January 20, 1921|death_date=November 2, 2018 (aged 97)|discipline=Philosophy|workplaces=University of California, Santa Barbara|sub_discipline=Confucianism<br>Ethics<br>Moral psychology|doctoral_advisor=Donald Piatt|education=University of California, Los Angeles (BA, PhD)|birth_name=Herbert Borenstein|spouse={{marriage|Leslie Josephine Swabacker|1945|2011|end=d.}}|birth_place=Brooklyn, New York, U.S.|death_place=Berkeley, California, U.S.|module={{infobox military person |embed = yes |branch = {{flag|United States Army}} |battles = World War II }}|children=1}}
'''Herbert Fingarette''' (born '''Herbert Borenstein'''; January 20, 1921 – November 2, 2018)<ref name="NYT">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/obituaries/herbert-fingarette-dead.html |work=New York Times |title=Herbert Fingarette, Contrarian Philosopher on Alcoholism, Dies at 97 |date=November 15, 2018 |access-date=June 23, 2021}}</ref> was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.<ref>{{cite web|title=Department of Philosophy - People|url=http://www.philosophy.ucsb.edu/people/index.html|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|access-date=October 26, 2012}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Fingarette was born Herbert Borenstein in Brooklyn. His father, David Borenstein, manufactured sewing machine parts. As a teenager, he moved with his family to Los Angeles. He later adopted the last name of his stepfather, Harry Fingarette. Fingarette initially studied chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, but left to serve in the United States Army during World War II, where he was assigned to the Pentagon. He later earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and PhD in philosophy from UCLA<ref>{{Cite news|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=November 15, 2018|title=Herbert Fingarette, Contrarian Philosopher on Alcoholism, Dies at 97|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/obituaries/herbert-fingarette-dead.html|access-date=July 30, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> under the direction of Donald Piatt.<ref>{{cite web|title=Herbert Fingarette|url=https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Herbert+Fingarette|publisher=Philosophy Family Tree|access-date=October 23, 2012}}</ref>
==Career== Fingarette's work deals with issues in philosophy of mind, psychology, ethics, law, and Chinese philosophy.<ref>{{cite web|title=Philosophy Faculty|url=http://www.philosophy.ucsb.edu/people/index.html|access-date=November 2, 2012|publisher=University of California - Santa Barbara}}</ref>
In his 1969 monograph ''Self-Deception'', Fingarette presents an account of the titular concept influenced by the work of Jean-Paul Sartre,<ref>{{cite web|last=Hirsch|first=Julie|title=Ethics and Self-Deception|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/eth-self/|publisher=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=October 23, 2012}}</ref> Sören Kierkegaard and Sigmund Freud, as well as contemporary work in physiology and analytic philosophy. Fingarette argues that traditional accounts of self-deception fall invariably into paradox because these accounts see self-deception in terms of perception or knowledge. Such paradoxes may be resolved, Fingarette claims, by re-framing self-deception as a problem of volition and action. On these new terms, he defines self-deception as an agent's persistent refusal to "spell out" (explicitly acknowledge) and to avow some aspect of his engagement in the world.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fingarette|first=Herbert|title=Self-Deception|year=2000|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=0520220528|pages=34, 46}}</ref>
Fingarette's 1972 monograph ''Confucius: The Secular As Sacred'' was described in a peer-reviewed academic journal as "one of the most significant philosophical books on the subject to be published in a long time".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rosemont Jr.|first1=Henry|title=Review: Confucius--The Secular as Sacred by Herbert Fingarette|journal=Philosophy East and West|date=October 1976|volume=26|issue=4|pages=463–477|jstor=1398287|doi=10.2307/1398287|last2=Fingarette|first2=Herbert}}</ref>
Fingarette also influentially applied his work in moral psychology to pressing social and legal issues, particularly those surrounding addiction. In his 1988 book ''Heavy Drinking'', Fingarette challenges the disease theory of alcoholism popularized by groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Fingarette's arguments were employed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1988 decision to deny VA educational benefits to two alcoholic American veterans.<ref>{{cite news|last=Beyette|first=Beverly|title=Alcoholism: Is It Really a Disease? : Controversial Author Contends Drinking Is Modifiable Behavior|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-23-vw-1748-story.html|newspaper=LA Times|date=March 23, 1988 |access-date=November 2, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Peele|first=Stanton|title=Herbert Fingarette, Radical Revisionist Why Are People So Upset With This Retiring Philosopher?|url=http://www.peele.net/lib/fingers.html|access-date=April 19, 2021}}</ref><ref name="NYT" />
Months before his death, Fingarette was the subject of a documentary short film ''Being 97'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Being 97 (2018) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11620778/ |website=IMDB |access-date=November 22, 2020}}</ref> which deals with growing old, death, absence, and the meaning of life.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Buder |first1=Emily |title=A 97-Year-Old Philosopher Ponders Life and Death: 'What Is the Point?' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/604840/being-97/ |website=The Atlantic |date=January 14, 2020 }}</ref>
== Personal life == He was married to Leslie Josephine Swabacker from 1945 until her death in 2011. Fingarette died from heart failure in Berkeley, California, in 2018. He was survived by his daughter and two grandsons.<ref name="NYT" />
==Works== * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=The Self in Transformation: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and the Life of the Spirit |year=1965 |publisher=Basic Books}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=On responsibility |year=1967 |publisher=Basic Books}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Self-deception |year=1969 |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |isbn=0-7100-6346-6}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Confucius: The Secular As Sacred |year=1972 |publisher=Harper and Row |isbn=0-06-131682-2}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=The Meaning of Criminal Insanity |year=1972 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-02082-0}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=The Self in Transformation: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and the Life of the Spirit |year=1977 |publisher=Harper Torchbooks |isbn=0-06-131177-4}} * {{cite book |last1=Fingarette |first1=Herbert |first2=Ann |last2=Fingarette Hasse |title=Mental Disabilities and Criminal Responsibility |year=1979 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-03630-1}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease |year=1988 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-06290-6}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Death: Philosophical Soundings |year=1999 |publisher=Open Court |isbn=0-8126-9329-9}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Self-Deception |year=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-22052-8}} * {{cite book |last=Fingarette |first=Herbert |title=Mapping Responsibility: Explorations in Mind, Law, Myth, and Culture |year=2004 |publisher=Open Court |isbn=0-8126-9564-X}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{wikiquote}} * [https://aeon.co/videos/an-ageing-philosopher-returns-to-the-essential-question-what-is-the-point-of-it-all Being 97] (Aeon video of Herbert Fingarette pondering "the meaning of it all" in 2018, the year of his death) * {{YouTube|qX6NztnPU-4|A 97-Year-Old Philosopher Faces His Own Death}}, The Atlantic, January 14, 2020 {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingarette, Herbert}} Category:1921 births Category:2018 deaths Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:American moral psychologists Category:American philosophers of mind Category:Chinese philosophy Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:Academics from Brooklyn Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni