{{Short description|American philosopher (1924–1996)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox philosopher |region = Western philosophy |era = 20th-century philosophy |image = |caption = |birth_name = Maurice Alexander Natanson |birth_date = {{birth date|1924|11|26}} |birth_place = New York City, US<ref name=butler-obit/> |death_date = {{death date and age|1996|8|16|1924|11|26}} |death_place = Santa Cruz, California, US |alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | Lincoln Memorial University | New York University | New School for Social Research}} |spouse = Lois Natanson |school_tradition = Phenomenology |institutions = {{unbulleted list | University of Houston | New School for Social Research | University of North Carolina | University of California, Santa Cruz | Yale University}} |doctoral_advisor = Alfred Schutz |academic_advisors = James Burnham |doctoral_students = {{hlist | Judith Butler | Lewis Gordon}} |main_interests = }}
'''Maurice Alexander Natanson''' (November 26, 1924 – August 16, 1996) was an American philosopher "who helped introduce the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Edmund Husserl in the United States".<ref name=obit>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/20/us/maurice-natanson-a-philosopher-71.html |work=The New York Times |title=Maurice Natanson, A Philosopher, 71 |date=1996-08-20 |access-date=2011-08-25}}</ref> He was a student of Alfred Schutz at the New School for Social Research and helped popularize Schutz' work from the 1960s onward.<ref name=butler-obit/>
During his career he taught at the University of Houston, the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research,<ref name=journeying>{{cite book |title=The Journeying Self: A Study in Philosophy and Social Role |url=https://archive.org/details/journeyingselfst0000nata |url-access=registration |author=Maurice Natanson |publisher=Addison Wesley |year=1970 |location=Reading, Massachusetts}}</ref> the University of North Carolina, Yale University, the University of California at Santa Cruz where he helped establish the History of Consciousness graduate program. He was a visiting professor at the Pennsylvania State University and University of California, Berkeley.<ref name=journeying/>
<ref name=butler-obit/> Natanson delivered the inaugural Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture, "Alfred Schutz: Philosopher and Social Scientist"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://phenomenologycenter.org/about-carp/honors-awards/schutz/ |title=Alfred Schutz Memorial Lecture |author=Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology |access-date=2011-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528081553/http://phenomenologycenter.org/about-carp/honors-awards/schutz/ |archive-date=2011-05-28 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> (1995) and the Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture "Illusion and Irreality"<ref>{{cite web |title=Aron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture |author=Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology |url=http://phenomenologycenter.org/about-carp/honors-awards/gurwitsch/ |access-date=2011-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528081700/http://phenomenologycenter.org/about-carp/honors-awards/gurwitsch/ |archive-date=2011-05-28 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> (1983) at the annual meetings of the Society for Phenomenology & the Human Sciences in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rz18.wwwdns.rz.uni-konstanz.de/index.php/history |title=Society for Phenomenology & the Human Sciences: A Brief History |author=George Psthasas |access-date=2011-08-26 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717021708/http://rz18.wwwdns.rz.uni-konstanz.de/index.php/history |archive-date=2012-07-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Natanson was born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn. He died from prostate cancer on August 16, 1996, at age 71.<ref name = obit/>
== Works == Natanson was the author of numerous works including: *''A Critique of Jean-Paul Sartre's Ontology'' (1951) *''Literature, Philosophy and the Social Sciences'' (1962) *''The Journeying Self: A Study in Philosophy and Social Role'' (1970) *''Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks'' (1973) *''Phenomenology, Role and Reason'' (1974) *''Anonymity: A Study in the Philosophy of Alfred Schutz'' (1986) *''The Erotic Bird: Phenomenology in Literature,'' (1998) and editor of ''Essays in Phenomenology'' (1966) *''Phenomenology and the Social Sciences'' (volumes 1 and 2) (1973).
Natanson also edited ''The Problem of Social Reality'', volume I of the collected papers of Alfred Schutz. The Husserl book won the National Book Award for Philosophy and Religion in 1974.<ref name=butler-obit>{{cite web |title=Maurice Natanson |author=Judith Butler |publisher=The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 50, 1997 |url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000438054 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nbawinners_category.html |author=National Book Foundation |author-link=National Book Foundation |access-date=2011-08-25 |title=National Book Award Winners: 1950 – 2009 |archive-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528173755/http://www.nationalbook.org/nbawinners_category.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
A ''Festschrift'' in honor of Natanson, ''The Prism of the Self'', published in 1995 (edited by Steven Calt Crowell), includes contributions from Fred Kersten, Lester Embree, Lewis Gordon, Thomas Luckmann, Richard Zaner, Nobuo Kazashi, Michael McDuffie, Gail Weiss, and Judith Butler.<ref name=butler-obit/><ref>{{cite book |author=Amazon.com |title=Prism of the Self |date=30 June 1995 |publisher=Springer |isbn=0792335465 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll25/searchterm/Natanson,%20Maurice,%201924-1996/mode/exact Photographs of Maurice Natanson from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Natanson, Maurice}} Category:1924 births Category:1996 deaths Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:Philosophers from New York (state) Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in California Category:People from Manhattan Category:Phenomenologists Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Category:University of Houston faculty Category:University of North Carolina faculty Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:Yale University faculty
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