Bruce W. Wilshire (February 8, 1932 – January 1, 2013) was an American philosopher who taught in the philosophy department at Rutgers University, from which he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2009.
Among works influential on his early formation were Living Issues in Philosophy by Harold Titus, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, and World Hypotheses by Stephen Pepper, which was a source for key metaphors that guided much of his later thinking.
While attending USC, he drove a taxicab to make ends meet, experiencing encounters with people he felt gave him insight into the human condition.
His interest in acting and theater eventually led to the publication of one of his most widely influential books in 1982: Role-Playing and Identity: The Limits of Theatre as Metaphor, a meditation on the nature of performance.
After being honorably discharged, he traveled to New York City to join the American Theatre Wing to study theater, funded by the GI Bill, which paid $110 a month.
He completed his master's degree within two years, writing his thesis on “Kierkegaard’s Theory of Truth,” then proceeded to complete his PhD with a 1966 dissertation: “William James and Phenomenology: Philosophical Issues in William James’ Principles of Psychology.” In 1967 he moved to the south campus of Purdue University as a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy.
(2004), an exploration of the nature of genocide that was a grief response to the accidental death of his adult daughter Rebekah after she was thrown from a horse.