Morris Weitz

Morris Weitz (/ˈwiːts/; July 24, 1916 – February 1, 1981) "was an American philosopher of aesthetics who focused primarily on ontology, interpretation, and literary criticism".

Morris Weitz was born on July 24, 1916, in Detroit, his parents having emigrated from Europe (and his father having worked as a painting contractor).

While doing graduate work in French history at the University of Chicago he met Bertrand Russell, which directed Weitz's interests towards philosophy.

In the same, according to Aaron W. Meskin writing in The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers,"Weitz argued that postwar Oxford philosophy was not unified by any general meta-philosophical position but rather by a commitment to investigating the logic of concepts".

[6] Weitz's 1956 paper has been, as Meskin notes, "one of the most influential works in contemporary philosophy of art, and... continues to generate debate and discussion".

[2] In a 2021 monograph, Jason Josephson Storm argued that most attempts to answer Weitz's critique of a singular definition of art have failed, including those based on phenomenology and aesthetic experience.