George Boas (28 August 1891 – 17 March 1980) was a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

Education

Boas received his education at Brown University, obtaining both a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy there, after which he studied shortly at Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1917.

Career

In 1921, Boas was hired at Johns Hopkins by Professor Arthur Oncken Lovejoy as an historian of philosophy. The same year Boas married sculptor Simone Brangier Boas. Boas' tenure at Hopkins was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a Commander in the Naval Reserve. One of his undergraduate students was Alger Hiss, with whom he kept in contact. Boas was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1950. He retired from the school in 1956, continuing his scholarly career with a fellowship at the Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University and as visiting Andrew W. Mellon chair at the University of Pittsburgh. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957.

Major works