Victor F. Lenzsa
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Univerai ty of California General Idbrary/~erkeley Regional Cultural History Projeef Victor F. Lenzsa PEKSICS me, PHIIX)SOiPHI An Interview Conducted by Edna Tartaul Daniel Berkeley 1965 Victor F. Lenzen Csmaissisning of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Ship "Peircen 6 May 1963, Nobile, Alabama. All uses of this manuscript are covered by an agree- ment between the Regents of the University of California and Victor P, Lenzen, dated 18 December 1964. The muscript is thereby made available for research purposes, All li terarp rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the General Library of the University of Californlia at Berkeley. Ho part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication vithout the written pedssion of the University Librarian of the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Victor F, Lenzen'e career at the University of California has spanned more than hall a century, fiom 1909 when he entered as a student to the present when as a profesaor emeritas he ia cont5nuin.g his studiee and dommittee work, His work has bean in both physica and philoeophg andl he has contributed writbj3e in both fieldsS It waa thie un- usual combination flus his work- on varioue committees of the Boademic Senate and his role in the development of the' De- partment of P-ica that b~oughthim to the attention of the Regional CuLturaJ, History Project which aas collecting -st- had accounte of the hietory of the University of California and its prominent faculty members: !Che Begional Culhral History Project was establiehed to tape-record antobiographical interviews with persons who have been prominent in the recent history of Borthern Clalifomia, One aeries of interviews, directed by Professor Walton E; Bean of the Department of History, deala with the development of the University of California and the oon- tribution of the Univereity and its faculty to the reglon and to the fields of research of the intervieweea; 9he following manuscript la a gart of this series; related interviews hare been completed with professors Baymond Birge, Balph Chaney, and Joel Eildebrand as well as with faculty members outside of the sciencesS lPhe Eroject ie under the nan\P.iniskative supemlaion of Assistant Librarian Julian Niche1 and is advised in its work by the Bancroft Library Subcomnit%ee of the Library Comni*tee of the Academic Senate: Wills Kf Bsurn Head Yg6, 1965 Regional Gultural Hia%ory Boject Boom 486 50General 'Librw Universi- of Califo- Berkeley, Cnlrfornia Profeesor Victor P. Itenzen, Professor of Physics, Emeritus, tape recorded Me comments about a low an8 significant academic career at the University of California at Berkeley, once each week; &om October 10, to Bovsmber 30, 19605 Although his teacu and academic 'duties radiated fkom the Department of Phy8ic8, his In- terest and publication8 ranged deeply into philosophical as well aa scientific concepts: The unusual range of mind and p.mfonnanzce which Professor Iten- brought to his-:career is best samrararbed in a biographical sketch he wrote Deoember, 1958, revised April 25, 1965, and which f0110~82 Professor. Lmzente manner was eaay, cordial, and accomodating to the iaterview procedure which was ried on in a rrmall office of the General Library of the University. As he spoke slowly and firmly, in a voice of unifom tenor regieter, hia intaae interest and close a&tention to the ideCre and information he presented, entirely silfAtsed hie rrurroundinge';. Ilhrough a qtliet manner and frugality of expreeeion there glowed great seet for the analytical. process he directed Co mbjecteli which oladmed his attention; He smiled easiw and. rel- ished wit and irony when they appeared in what he had to eay'; Ae he walked about the campus, his pweical. appear- ance waa eomewhat e-bern. Hia spare frame and angula;c profile were surmounted by a grey felt hat placed squarely upon hie head'; He yore somewhat dark and simp4 cut euits and a topcoat and proceeded at a steady though cautious pace, and tamaUy with a canez Following recordhg, the tapes were transcribed ad the manuecript edited by the interviewer for clarity ad continuity; Before final. typing, Professor Lenzen made correction6 and contributed several photographs for Il- lustration of the manuscript. Edna 'Partaul Daniel Interviewer 1, 196'; Regional Cultural. His%oryProject Boom 486 50General Library University of California Berkeley, Cali3ornia Victor F, Lenzen was born on December 14, 1890, in San Jose, California, where his paternal grandfather had settled in 1862, the son of 'Pheodore W.md Kate A, (~chnoo;r)' Leneen, He attended school in San Jose, &klaad and San Zraacisco, and in 1909 graduated from the California School of Mechanical Arts. He manifested interest in pure science while preparing for college, but entered the University of California in the College of Nechanical and Electrical Eugir~eering. His interest in pure theory, however, caueed him to turn to philosophy and he graduated *om the Univer- sity in 1913 with a maJor in philo-eophy. He was awarded the Scholarship of the kardClub of San &ancisco and ;__--- thus Pur~Bdgraduate study at ~mardUniversity from which he received the degree of doctor of philosophy lh @iIaaop~in 1916. During his first year at Harvard he came under the influence of Bertrand Russell whose work in logic and philosophy of science revived Lenzen @ a earlier interest in physics, As a member and secretary of Joaiah Royce's famous seminar in scientific metho- dology, zeneen became even more inclined to abandon pwphy. for mathematics and physics, During the Chrisl;mas vacation in 1914, Lensen waa sent by the Harvard philosophers to the home, near Milfora, Pennsylvania, of . the philosopher Charles S, Peirce, whose death had occurred in April, to pack and ship the manuscripts 'md boob of Peirce which his widow wished to give to Hsuevard UniversimQ.. Upon completion of his studies for the doctorate, he was awarded a Sheldon Fellowship for study in Cambridge, Ihglaad, aad Pazis, fiance, under the trying conditions of wartime, In Cambridge he attended lectures by J.J. momson, Joseph Larmor and also traveled regularly to London to study mathematical logic with a mall group under Bertrand Russell, Upon return to the United States he was Assistant in Philosophy at Har~ardduring the year 1917- 19185 He returned to his home in-San E\rmcisco in June, 1918, and then resumed his membership in the University of California, Berkeley, feat as Assiataat in Physics paper "Philosophy of Science in American to the volume Philosophic Thought in fiance and the United Stateg (1950). He also wrote several reports on Philoaophy and Physica in the United States for L'International Inetitut de Philosophie. He was frequently consulted by the national Science Foundation for judgments on projects in the Philo- sophy of Science, Hie broad interests also included the history of his subject and for mag years he served as Associate Editor of Isis and as a member of the local History of Science Dinner Club, He was a frequent con- tri-tor to the United States Quarterly Book Beview of the Librar~rof Congress; Professor Leazen was Ouggenheim Fellow 1927-1928 and duriag his residence in Goettingen, Germauy, puraued the s-dy of'theoretical physics. In the aummera of 1932-33- 34 he attended conferences on theoretical physics at Bna Azbor, Hichigan. - He married Eather V, Hayden, a graduate of the University, on July 13, 1935, In the summer of 1936 they traveled to Europe where Professor Leneen read a paper to the International Congrem. for the Unity of Science In Copenhagen, and wae a delegate to the Interna- tional Mathematioal Congrese in Oslo, Norway, In 1938 Professor and &a. Leneen made a trip around the world and en route he presented a gaper to the International Congress for the Unity of Science in Cambridge, England. Profeseor Lenzen's association with the Unity of Science - mbvement led to his contrihtionVrocedures of Bupirical Sciencewto the Encycloped.ia of Unified Science, He waa especially interested in the work of Einstein and contri- buted a paper nEinstein'e Theory of Knowledgen to the voltme ginstein9hilosoiher-~c~entist(1949). He alao contributed by imitation to the volume of testhoniala presented to Binatein on the ocuaaion of the latbrte seventy-fifth birthday (1954) and his comparison of Mn- stein and Spinoea was quoted by the mew York Times on the occasion df Einstein1s death the following year; Professor zeneen served on the Executive Committee of tbe College of 'letters and Science and on varioue com- mittees of the Academic Senate, including terms aa Chair- man of the Editorial Committee, of the Committee on Privilege and Tenure, and of the Committee on Memorial Resolutions. While eerving on the Editorial ~ommittee a controvereial paper on archaeology led him to investigate the field with the result that he published an internation- ally recognized paper Vhe Hgure of Dionyaoa on the - Siphnian I!kier;em (1946) 2 After retirement, Prof essor Lenzen reviewed the controversy in archaeology and pub- lished a second paper nThe Figure of Dionysoa on Textiles of hte Antique Egypt, These later years, however, were occupied mainly with studies of the scientific work of Peirce, in whom his interest had bee2 revived by a leffer from Professor MaJr H, Fisch, University of Illinois, bio- grgher 09 Peirce, inquiring about the mission to Milford in 1914, Professor Lenzen undertook researches in the Bafional Archives, located long neglected instruments. uaed by Peirce, and published papers on Peirce's contributione - to the fields of gravity,.=tronomy and metrology. Professor Lenzen was a member of the American Physical Society, the American Mathematical Society, :the American Philosophical Association (president, Pacific Division 1944), the History of Science Society, the Archaeological Insti- tute of America, the American Association of University Professora.