Lives of Philosophers Archives - Page 2 of 5

Lives of Philosophers

Bentham Being Tested For Autism

Scientists have taken DNA samples of philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who died in 1832, to determine whether he had Asperger Syndrome or some other form of autism, according to The Telegraph. (more…)

Glen Newey (1961-2017)

Glen Newey, professor of political philosophy and ethics at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Leiden, died on September 30th, 2017. (more…)

Ken Chung (1978 – 2017)

Ken Chung, a philosopher who taught at Western University, Ryerson University, the University of Guelph-Humber, and at Trent University, died this past Wednesday. He was 39 years old. (more…)

Advice to Young Scholars from Anita Allen

Work on problems that really interest you. Cross train. Be competent in multiple disciplines and methods. Don’t be afraid to start draft/writing before you know all that there is to know. Publish well. Use social media cautiously. Don’t think you will be an exception to standard rules because of your race or color. A woman does not get tenure because she been a hard..

Delia Graff Fara (1969-2017) (updated)

Delia Graff Fara, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, died this past Tuesday. She was 48 years old. (more…)

Robert S. Cohen (1924-2017)

Robert S. Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy and physics at Boston University, died yesterday, June 19th, 2017. Professor Cohen was known mainly for his work in the philosophy and history of science. (more…)

Peter Kivy (1934-2017) (updated with statement from Rutgers)

Peter Kivy, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, has died. A prolific philosopher of art, literature, and especially music, Professor Kivy had over 20 books to his name. (more…)

Hubert Dreyfus (1929-2017)

Hubert Dreyfus, a renowned philosopher and a professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley for almost 50 years, died early Saturday morning. He was 87 years old.

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Pamela Sue Anderson (1955-2017)

Pamela Sue Anderson, Professor of Modern European Philosophy of Religion at Oxford University, died this past Sunday, from cancer. She was 61. (more…)

Josh Parsons (1973-2017)

Josh Parsons, our beloved friend, mentor, and role-model, died on April 11, 2017. He was 44. Our thoughts are with his family, and most especially with his wife, Hannah Burgess. (more…)

David Braine (1940-2017)

David Braine, a philosopher at the University of Aberdeen, died this past February. Professor Braine worked in a broad range of philosophical fields, including philosophy of religion, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics. (more…)

Richard Tieszen (1951-2017)

Richard Tieszen, professor of philosophy at San José State University, died earlier this week at age 65. Professor Tieszen worked in the philosophy of math, logic, and phenomenology. (more…)

Mary Hesse (1924-2016)

Mary Hesse, professor emeritus of philosophy at University of Cambridge, died this past Sunday. Professor Hesse worked in philosophy of science. She had been at Cambridge since 1960 in its Department of History and Philosophy of Science, becoming a fellow of Cambridge’s Wolfson College in 1965. (more…)

Philosophy: Splendidly Polyphonic, Historically Limited, Problematically Magical

In the latest interview at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher?, Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) asks Kwame Anthony Appiah (NYU) how he sees the future of philosophy. Appiah answers:

I’m not much of a prophet and I feel very stuck in the present of the subject, which strikes me as splendidly more polyphonic than it was when I started out. (more…)

Georg Kreisel (1923-2015)

Georg Kreisel, known for his work in philosophy of math, has died. Prior to his retirement in 1985, Kreisel held appointments at Stanford, the University of Paris, the University of Reading, and the Institute for Advanced Study. He was a student of Wittgenstein, who is reported to have said that Kreisel was the “most able philosopher he had ever met who was also a m..

Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture (updated)

A number of people have remarked (here and elsewhere) on the Dewey Lecture delivered by Peter Railton (Michigan) at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division Meeting this past week. Professor Railton has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of the lecture, which he emphasizes is a draft. I have posted it here (UPDATE 2/27/15: this is a link to..

Ann Johnson (1965-2016) (updated)

Ann Johnson, associate professor of science and technology studies at Cornell University, and prior to that associate professor of philosophy and history at the University of South Carolina, has died. She was 51. (more…)

Peter Manchester (1943-2015)

Peter Manchester, a philosopher at Stony Brook University (formerly SUNY Stony Brook), has died. Professor Manchester started at Stony Brook in 1980 and worked in ancient philosophy, Neoplatonism, speculative theology, hermeneutical phenomenology, and philosophy of time. His last book,Temporality and Trinity, came out just a few months ago. Newsday has more informat..

Al Mele Interviewed at “What Is It Like…?”

Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) continues his series of interviews at “What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher?” (previously) with Florida State University’s Al Mele. A synopsis:

In this interview, Al Mele talks about his early love of sports (especially football), games and reading, being an East Detroit greaser, getting a football scholarship, being disinterested..

Irving Singer (1926-2015) (updated)

Irving Singer, professor emeritus of philosophy at MIT, has died. He had been at MIT since 1958. The following is from an obituary posted by MIT:

Singer was an eminent philosopher whose academic career spanned 65 years — with more than half a century as a professor at MIT. Singer was the author of 21 books in the field of humanistic philosophy, focusing on topic..

Philosophy as a Way of Life

Stoicism, of course, may not appeal to or work for everyone. It is a rather demanding philosophy of life, where your moral character is pretty much stipulated to be the only truly worthy thing to cultivate in life (though health, education, and even wealth are considered to be “preferred indifferents”). Then again, it does have a lot of points of contact with other ..

An Interview with David Chalmers

David Chalmers (NYU & ANU), apart from being a prolific academic philosopher, does a good amount of public philosophy, is half of the team that runs PhilPapers and its associated endeavors, edits the philosophy of mind series for Oxford University Press and the philosophy of mind section at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and, I’m told, takes on an impressi..

“How could someone be so devastatingly exacting and kind?”

If your father is a philosopher, then you should expect to lose many arguments. You will never lose “because life isn’t fair,” or because your dad “says so.” You will always lose on strict logical grounds… If your father is a philosopher, your premises must support your conclusion. Then, maybe once or twice in a childhood filled with lost arguments, you will win. ..

Holiday Gift Guide 2016

The holidays are almost upon us and you may be wondering what gifts to get the philosophers in your life. (more…)

Jerome A. Shaffer (1929-2016)

Jerome A. Shaffer, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, died on November 17th, 2016. (more…)