Steven A.M. Burns, professor of philosophy (retired) at Dalhousie University, has died.

Professor Burns wrote on a wide range of subjects, including the philosophies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Otto Weininger, and Peter Winch, the history of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, and jokes, among others. You can learn more about his writing here and here.

Burns joined the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie in 1969. For a period he held a concurrent appointment at the University of King’s College. He earned his D.Phil from the University of London, his MA from the University of Alberta, and his undergraduate degree from Acadia University.

His colleagues shared the following memorial notice:

With sadness, the Philosophy Department at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) acknowledges the passing on September 19, at home in the company of his family, of Dr. Steven A. M. Burns, a much-loved colleague who taught at Dalhousie and the affiliated University of King’s College for many years. Steven joined the Dalhousie Philosophy Department in 1969, not long before defending his D. Phil. dissertation entitled “Self-Deception” under the supervision of Peter Winch at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was one of a wave of new hires who shaped the Department for over three decades. 

He later liked to joke that he offered classes on people whose names began with ‘W’—Wagner, Weil, Winch, Wittgenstein—but he also taught, among other topics, Ancient Philosophy, Marxist Theory, and—one of his most popular classes—Philosophy of Art.

He played a key role in developing the Department’s highly successful PhD program, and he supervised thirty-four graduate students, including two PhDs. He served as the Department’s Graduate Program Coordinator for thirteen years and also as Chair of the Department from 1988 to 1992. In 2006 he was given the Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies Distinguished Service Award.

During the 1990s he was instrumental in establishing the Contemporary Studies Program at the University of King’s College, serving as the program’s Director from 2001 to 2003. After his retirement from Dalhousie in 2006, he continued to teach in CSP until 2013.

His publications range over a wide field of topics, from translations of Winch and Weininger and essays on Wittgenstein, Hume and Plato, to papers on environmental ethics, the history of Canadian philosophy, Canadian literature (Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies), aesthetics, philosophy and film, and understanding jokes. (Wittgenstein reportedly remarked that “a serious and good philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes.” Steven proved this by writing one.)

He was the founder of the Atlantic Canada Wittgenstein Reading Group and a champion of Canadian bilingualism and of Canadian philosophy, both in his writing and in his long-time involvement with the Canadian Philosophical Association/ Association canadienne de philosophie (as Associate Secretary, Secretary and program Chair), and the Atlantic Region Philosophers’ Association (ARPA), at whose 2022 meetings he was celebrated in two special sessions devoted to his work and interests. Some of the essays from those sessions will soon appear in a special issue of Dialogue, together with Steven’s responses.

(via Michael Hymers)