Lives of Philosophers
CategoryRobert 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.
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…)
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…)
Happy Thanksgiving
In 1975, Ethics published “Gratitude” by Fred Berger, a philosopher at UC Davis. He opens the essay with the following: (more…)
On World Philosophy Day: What Else Would You Be Doing?
Happy World Philosophy Day, philosofriends. World Philosophy Day was created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to celebrate philosophy and promote the idea that “philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promotin..
Dominic Balestra (1947-2016)
Dominic Balestra, professor and chair of philosophy at Fordham University, died on November 8th, 2016. (more…)
Sandra Bartky (1935-2016)
Sandra Lee Bartky, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, died earlier today. (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..
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..
Philosophy and the Racial “Epistemic Horizon”
Looking back, I brought something special to those spaces that are predominantly white at Duquesne. And I don’t think that white philosophers can offer what I offered to those Black students and students of color. There is a certain discourse, certain assumptions, a shared discourse, a shared worldview, a shared style. There is also a certain understanding of where ..