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Howison Lecture History In 1919, friends and former students of Professor George Holmes Howison established the Howison Lectures in Philosophy at the University of California. Dr. Howison was the son of Eliza Holmes and Robert Howison, a liberal-minded couple. George attended the all-boys Marietta Academy and, later, Marietta College, where he developed a passion for literature, mathematics and philosophy. Following college, Howison completed a full course of divinity studies at Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio and then accepted a teaching position in Salem, Massachusetts. There, Howison met and married Lois Caswell, a young English teacher. The young couple moved to St. Louis immediately after the Civil War when Howison was offered a position at Washington University. He taught mathematics, Latin, and political economics and wrote about religion. He also was a member of the St. Louis Philosophical Society’s Kant Club, where he met influential thinkers of the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, and William James. After returning to New England in 1872, Howison was appointed Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After six years at MIT, his position was eliminated due to budget cuts, allowing his family to spend two years traveling through Europe. They spent a considerable amount of time in Berlin, where his fascination with German idealism grew. In 1884, Howison accepted an offer from the University of California, Berkeley and was named Mills Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity. At Berkeley, he taught metaphysical theory in, what he called, “personal idealism,” which was heavily influenced by Kant. He took a genuine interest in his students' welfare and chose to be involved in their lives. He also founded the Philosophical Union, now one of the oldest and most respected organizations of its kind in the country. Professor Howison died in Berkeley in 1916 at the age of 81. With full provision for Mrs. Howison, he gave all his property to the University and created several foundations including a fellowship in philosophy and a fund for the maintenance of beds in the University Infirmary. At a University meeting one month after Howison's death, University of California, Berkeley President Benjamin Ide Wheeler said: "His life is imbedded in the life of this University. Whichever way you turn, you find the things that were made to be what they are because of George Howison...his life could not be in a community life without shaping that community life. So he has done, and he lives here among us."
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