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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Richard Hocking

American philosopher

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 12, 2025
Entity authorityQ81723370 ↗
Source-derived summary

Richard Boyle O'Reilly Hocking (26 August, 1906 – 11 March, 2001) was an American philosopher and a professor of philosophy at Emory University. He was the son of William Ernest Hocking and grandson of John Boyle O'Reilly. He was a president of the Metaphysical Society of America (1970).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Hocking” as american philosopher. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1906, 2001, 1970—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1906, 1906-08-26—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Richard, Hocking and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american philosopher. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q81723370. VIAF identifies the subject as 116747036. The Library of Congress control number is n97122715. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 2001 and 1970.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Hocking”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Hocking primary sources, Richard Hocking archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard Hocking”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard Hocking” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.