Schrecker, Paul
SCHRECKER, PAUL
SCHRECKER, PAUL (1889–1963), historian of philosophy. Born in Vienna, he was appointed associate editor of the Prussian Academy of Sciences' project of publishing the complete critical edition of Leibniz's works. The project was suspended in 1933, under the Nazis. Schrecker lost his post and fled to Paris, where he worked in the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique on the history of philosophy and the history of science. With D. Roustan, he began a critical edition of Malebranche's writings. The first volume appeared in 1938, and the second was under way when the Germans took over Paris. He prepared an edition of some of Leibniz' Latin writings, which he translated into French also. An English translation of some works of Leibniz by Schrecker and his wife appeared posthumously. He immigrated to the United States and was professor at the New School of Social Research, 1941–45, and at Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr colleges near Philadelphia, and from 1950 to 1961 at the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote many articles on themes in the history of philosophy, history of science, and philosophy of history, and a book, Work and History: An Essay on the Structure of Civilization (1948).
[Richard H. Popkin]