Marjorie Glicksman Grene (December 13, 1910 — March 16, 2009) was an American philosopher.
She wrote both on existentialism and the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of biology. She taught at the University of California at Davis from 1965 to 1978. From 1988 until her death she was Honorary University Distinguished Professor of philosophy at Virginia Tech.
Her first degree was in zoology, from Wellesley College; she then received a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University (Radcliffe College).
She studied with Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, leaving Germany in 1933. She was in Denmark in 1935, and then at the University of Chicago. After losing her position there during World War II, she spent 15 years as a mother and farmer.
Her obituary in the New York Times said she was "one of the first philosophers to raise questions about the synthetic theory of evolution, which combines Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendel’s understanding of genetic inheritance and more recent discoveries by molecular biologists." She, along with co-author David Depew, wrote the first history of the philosophy of biology. In 2002, she was the first female philosopher to have an edition of the Library of Living Philosophers written about her.
In 1995 the International Society for History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology established a prize for young scholars in her name. The Society said her name was chosen because "not only does her work in the history and philosophy of biology exemplify the strong spirit of interdisciplinary work fundamental to (the Society), but she played a central role in bringing together diverse scholars of biology even before the formation of the Society."
Philosophers Speak for Themselves: From Descartes To Kant. Readings in the Philosophy of the Renaissance and Enlightenment (1940) editor with Thomas Vernor Smith
Dreadful Freedom: A Critique of Existentialism (1948)
The World View of Physics by C. F. von Weizsäcker (1952) translator
Martin Heidegger (1957)
Philosophers Speak for Themselves: From Descartes to Locke (1958) editor with T. V. Smith
Introduction to Existentialism (1959)
A Portrait of Aristotle (1963)
Philosophers Speak for Themselves: Berkeley, Hume and Kant (1963) editor with T. V. Smith
The Knower and the Known (1966)
Approaches to a Philosophical Biology (1968)
The Anatomy of Knowledge: Papers Presented to the Study Group on Foundations of Cultural Unity, Bowdoin College, 1965 and 1966; (1969) editor
Toward a Unity of Knowledge (1969) editor
Laughing and Crying: A Study of the Limits of Human Behavior by Helmuth Plessner (1970) translator with James Spencer Churchill
Interpretations of Life and Mind: Essays Around the Problem of Reduction (1971) editor
Jean-Paul Sartre (1973)
Spinoza : A Collection of Critical Essays (1973) editor
The Understanding of Nature: Essays In The Philosophy Of Biology (1974)
Philosophy In and Out of Europe (1976) essays
Topics in the Philosophy of Biology (1976) editor with Everett Mendelsohn
Dimensions Of Darwinism : Themes And Counterthemes In Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Theory (1983) editor
Descartes (1985)
Spinoza And The Sciences (1986) editor
Muntu : African Culture and the Western World by Janheinz Jahn (1990) translator
Descartes Among the Scholastics (1991) Aquinas Lecture 1991)
Interactions. The Biological Context of Social Systems (1992) with Niles Eldredge
A Philosophical Testament (1995)
Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies (1995) editor with Roger Ariew
The Mechanization of the Heart: Harvey and Descartes by Thomas Fuchs (2001) translator
Malebranche's First and Last Critics: Simon Foucher and Dortous De Mairan (2002) with Richard A. Watson;
Apology for Raymond Sebond by Montaigne (2003) translator with Roger Ariew
Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History (2004) with David Depew
Knowing & Being: essays by Michael Polanyi, editor
Geoffroy Saint Hilaire by Hervé Le Guyader, translator