A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists/Adler, Professor Felix
Adler, Professor Felix, Ph.D., American philosopher and founder of the American Ethical Movement. B. (Germany) Aug. 13, 1851. Ed. Berlin and Heidelberg Universities. On his return to New York, after completing his studies, young Adler was invited to succeed his father as Jewish rabbi. He was, however, a Rationalist, and refused to subscribe to the creed. In 1874 he became professor of oriental languages at Cornell University, and in 1876 he founded the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the cradle of the American Ethical Movement. Through this Society Dr. Adler has organized a great deal of social and philanthropic work in New York, and he has sat on several Government Commissions on social questions. Since 1902 he has been professor of social and political ethics at Columbia University, New York. In 1908–9 he was Roosevelt Professor at Berlin. He has written a number of Ethical-Rationalist works.