Philip Wheelwright

Philip Ellis Wheelwright (July 6, 1901 – January 6, 1970) was an American philosopher, classical scholar and literary theorist. He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on July 6, 1901, and died in Santa Barbara, California on January 6, 1970, four years after his retirement from the University of California, where he had been a professor since 1954.

He is best known for two books in the field of literary criticism, The Burning Fountain: a Study in the Language of Symbolism (1954) and Metaphor and Reality (1962), and his book on early Greek philosophy, The Presocratics (1966). He is also the author of an introductory textbook to philosophical ethics, entitled A Critical Introduction to Ethics (1935). Wheelwright was a Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College from 1937 to 1953.