Ryan Lake (1976-2025)
Ryan Lake, associate professor of philosophy at Perimeter College at Georgia State University, has died.
(photo via Jennifer Lake)
Ryan’s philosophical interests were mainly on questions related to freedom and determinism. He joined the faculty at Perimeter College in 2016. Before that, he held appointments at Miami Dade College and Clemson University. He earned his PhD from the University of Miami and his BA from Grand Valley State University.
In addition to his academic work and teaching, Ryan dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to popularizing philosophy.
His main channel for this was his philosophical comic strip, Chaospet, which he started in 2007 and which I was fortunate to be able to publish for several years at Daily Nous, beginning in 2015. You can view those comics here. He also created a set of philosophy videos on TikTok.
Ryan defended a version of compatibilism, yet a recurring theme of his comics was the absurdity of human agency, responsibility, and valuing in a mechanical and indifferent universe.
(Chaospet by Ryan Lake, January 15, 2019)
For Ryan, the absurdity of our condition also included the human capacity, or perhaps need, to grasp for the silver lining in what seem like metaphysically or epistemically undesirable conditions. 
(Chaospet by Ryan Lake, September 12, 2017)
And of course he did not exempt his own way of grappling with the human condition from his ironic lens.
(Chaospet by Ryan Lake, September 20, 2022)
Ryan died of cancer. He was 48 years old.
Oh no! Very sad. Chaospet was a wonderful comic strip – and it’s tragic for him to go so young!
Indeed. And a tragedy for our discipline which needs more self-reflective satire like his. I will miss his wisdom conveyed in powerful unconventional ways.
I was very fortunate having Ryan as a community college student. He was a natural from the very beginning and made use of every philosophical tool we could make available to him. Very early in his career at the community college he was invited into a general discussion group whose membership was basic faculty and not undergraduate.
Ryan’s contribution at every one of our meetings, made that meeting much richer for everybody in attendance. He was loved by everyone of us.
I lost track of Ryan to a degree in recent years and regret that very much. My very best to his family and loved ones.
Ryan loved having you as a teacher and spoke about you very often with fondness and deep respect. I think you were probably his greatest influence in becoming a philosopher.
2025 is turning out to be a terrible year in so many ways. Fuck cancer!
May Ryan’s memory be a blessing.
I did not know Ryan, but I’ll never forget that smile and his friendliness when ever, by chance, we shared space. He was cooler than cool! My sincere condolences to his families — both personal and professional.