Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902–July 12, 1989 in Stanford) was a prominent American philosopher who championed pragmatism.

Hook was born in New York to Jennie and Issac Hook. He earned his Bachelor's degree at the City College of New York in 1923, then his Masters and Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1927, where he was a student of John Dewey. Upon finishing his studies he was hired by New York University until his retirement in 1972. From 1948 to 1969 he was head of the department of philosophy, during which time he founded the New York University Institute of Philosophy .

At the beginning of his career, Hook achieved prominence as an expert on Karl Marx's philosophy and was himself a Marxist. He visited Moscow in the late 1920s and wrote enthusiastically about the Soviet Union. In 1932 he supported the Communist Party's William Z. Foster when he ran for President of the United States. However, he became critical of Stalin in the 1930s accusing him of prioritizing "the needs of the Russian state" over the needs of the international revolution.[1] He broke completely with the Communist Party and Stalin over the Great Purge supporting Leon Trotsky's efforts to clear his name in a special Commission of Inquiry led by John Dewey which investigated Stalinist charges against him made during the Moscow Trials. Hook was never a Trotskyist however, and during the Cold War he became a leading anti-Communist though he continued to consider himself a democratic socialist throughout his life.

Books written by Hook

• The Meaning of Marx (1934)
• From Hegel to Marx (1936)
• Heresy Yes, Conspiracy No (1953)
• Common Sense and the Fifth Amendment (1957)
• The Place of Religion in a Free Society (1968)
• Academic Freedom and Academic Anarchy (1970)

External links

pragmatism.org comments on Hook