Abraham Edel

{{Short description|American philosopher and ethicist}}

Abraham Edel (6 December 1908 – 22 June 2007) was a North American philosopher and ethicist. He was the younger brother of the North American literary critic and biographer Leon Edel, and the uncle of the composer Joel Mandelbaum. He was married three times; his first two wives were fellow academics and co-authors, the anthropologist May Mandelbaum Edel, the philosopher Elizabeth Flower, and Sima Szaluta respectively.{{cite journal|last=Hare|first=PH|title=Abraham Edel, 1908-2007|journal=Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association|volume=81|issue=2|pages=169–171|publisher=jstor.org|jstor=27654005|year=2007}}{{cite news|title=Ethical Judgment: The Use of Science in Ethics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxF8SfWMMWcC|accessdate=28 February 2014|newspaper=books.google.com.np|isbn = 9781412822824|last1 = Edel|first1 = Abraham|year = 1955}}{{cite web|title=The Struggle for Academic Democracy|url=http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/686_reg.html|publisher=temple.edu|accessdate=28 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228203142/http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/686_reg.html|archive-date=28 February 2014|url-status=dead}}

He had two children Deborah Edel, a founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and Matthew Edel, an Economist. {{Cite news |date=1990-12-08 |title=Matthew D. Edel, 49, Professor and Author |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/08/obituaries/matthew-d-edel-49-professor-and-author.html |access-date=2023-01-04 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Lesbian Herstory Archives |language=en}}

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he grew up in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Edel attended McGill University, Oxford University and Columbia University. He taught at City College of New York for more than 40 years, and then held a research appointment at the University of Pennsylvania until his death. He was the recipient of numerous academic honors.