Lives of Philosophers
CategoryRichard 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…)
Marilyn McCord Adams (1943-2017)
Marilyn McCord Adams, a philosopher who held appointments at Rutgers University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Yale University, UCLA, and Oxford (as the first and only woman to be the Regius Professor of Divinity), has died. (more…)
Long Profile of Daniel Dennett
The New Yorker has published a lengthy article about Daniel Dennett (Tufts), by Joshua Rathman. “Daniel Dennett’s Science of the Soul” delves into the Dennett’s biography and describes some of the philosophical disputes in which his views have been central. (more…)
Susanne Foster (1962-2017)
Susanne E. Foster, associate professor of philosophy and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University, died on Saturday, March 18 at the age of 55. Prior to her appointment at Marquette, Professor Foster taught at the University of Notre Dame, where she received her PhD (under the direction of Alasdair McIntyre). Sh..
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…)
Fabian Dorsch (1974-2017)
Fabian Dorsch, associate research professor of philosophy at the University of Fribourg, died unexpectedly last week. He was 42. (more…)
Tom Regan (1938-2017)
Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, died this morning. Professor Regan was known largely for his work on ethical questions regarding the treatment of animals. He developed a theory of animal rights which he put forward in his well-known book, The Case for Animal Rights. He was also a specialist on the philosophy of G.E. Mo..
Cynicism and Hope about the Philosophy Profession
What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? has published an interview with Jenny Saul, who is professor of philosophy at the University of Sheffield, blogger at Feminist Philosophers, and 2011 winner of the Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award.
Raymond Smullyan (1919-2017)
Raymond Smullyan, Oscar R. Ewing Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington, and before that professor of math and philosophy at Lehman College (CUNY), died last week. (more…)
Self-Doubt and “Publish or Perish”
It took a while for Jonathan Dancy (University of Texas, University of Reading) to come around to the idea that he had any philosophical talent, he says, in an interview with Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? As a result, he did not publish much in the early part of his career.
He received his BPhil from Oxford in 1971, for w..
John Deely (1942-2017)
John Deely, Professor in Residence in philosophy at St. Vincent College, died this past Saturday. Professor Deely worked in semiotics. Prior to his appointment at St. Vincent College, he taught at the University of St. Thomas (Houston, Texas) and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. (more…)
Derek Parfit (1942-2017) (updated)
Philosopher Derek Parfit died last night, according to several sources. He was emeritus fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University, Global Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at New York University, and also had held appointments at Harvard University and Rutgers University.
Parfit was an ingenious philosopher, by all reports a kind colleague, and an espe..
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…)
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…)
Jerome A. Shaffer (1929-2016)
Jerome A. Shaffer, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, died on November 17th, 2016. (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…)
Joseph Boyle (1942-2016)
Joseph Boyle, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Toronto, died on September 24th. Professor Boyle worked mainly in ethics, including ethical theory and applied ethics (especially bioethics), as well as natural law theory. He received his doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University, and prior to the University of Toronto, held appointments a..
Is Philosophy Unfriendly?
The latest interview at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? is up, and it’s with Dan Haybron (Saint Louis University). There’s a lot of interesting stuff in it, so worth a read. One theme that stuck out was the idea that, though most philosophers are quite nice, there is something “unfriendly” about philosophy. Professor Haybron says of grad school in philosophy:
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Happy Thanksgiving
In 1975, Ethics published “Gratitude” by Fred Berger, a philosopher at UC Davis. He opens the essay with the following: (more…)
What Philosophy Makes You Worse At
Over at the group blog, A Philosopher’s Take, new contributor Mike Steiner (a philosophy PhD who went into the business world) has a post up asking what studying philosophy makes one worse at.
Talking Philosophy With Your Kids
Philosopher parents: how, if at all, do you talk philosophy with you own children?
I don’t give my children philosophy lessons, nor do we celebrate Socrates’ birthday. There may be a few more books of logic puzzles laying around the house than average, along with many of the children’s books listed here, but I don’t force philosophy on the kids. If the opportunit..
Are Philosophers Hypocrites?
“On no issue did ethicists show unequivocally better behavior than the two comparison groups,” the researchers reported.
An article in The Atlantic— “The Hypocrisy of Professional Ethicists“— sums up research by Eric Schwitzgebel (UCR), Joshua Greene (Harvard), Sara Bleich (Johns Hopkins), Eric Schulz (Max Planck Inst.), Michael Koenigs (Wisconsin), and other..
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..
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..