death
Robert H. Kane (1938-2024)
Robert H. Kane, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, has died.
David Sosa, chair of the Department of Philosophy at UT Austin, shared the following memorial notice:
The Department of Philosophy at UT Austin mourns the passing of its longtime member Robert Kane, who was University Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Philosophy (Emeritus).
The author of seven books and more than eighty articles on the philosophy of mind, free will and action, ethics, value theory, political philosophy and philosophy of religion, including Free Will and Values, Through the Moral Maze, The Significance of Free Will (inaugural winner of the Hamilton Faculty Book Award), A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will, and Ethics and the Quest for Wisdom, Kane was also editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will.
Kane was the recipient of seventeen major teaching awards at the University of Texas, including the “President’s Excellence Award,” and was in 1995 named one of the initial members of the University’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
Long a leading defender of a traditional “libertarian” view of free will, Kane was known for his attempts to reconcile such a view with modern science, and to articulate its implications for ethics, politics, and law.
[This post will be updated later today with further information.]
The post Robert H. Kane (1938-2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
Charles Parsons (1933-2024)
Charles D. Parsons, professor emeritus of philosophy at Harvard University, has died.
Professor Parsons was known for his work on the philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of logic, Kant, and historical figures in the foundations of mathematics, such as Frege, Hilbert, and Gödel. He is the author of Mathematical Thought and Its Objects (2007), Philosophy of Mathematics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays (2013), From Kant to Husserl: Selected Essays (2012), and many other works. You can learn more about his writings here. Parsons also was an editor of The Journal of Philosophy for 25 years.
Parsons earned his AB and PhD from Harvard University and worked for a year at Cornell University before returning to Harvard for a few years. He then joined the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he taught for 20 years. In 1989 he moved back to Harvard.
He died on April 19th, 2024.
The post Charles Parsons (1933-2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
Daniel Dennett
I feel I should acknowledge the death of Daniel Dennett, a philosopher who had the rare gift of communicating his interesting ideas very well. Even now, many years later and although I disagree with some significant bits, I would recommend Consciousness Explained as a great book on the subject (read mine too, though!) I think Dennett’s faith in computation was over-optimistic, and although I basically agreed with him about his atheism I didn’t share the crusading enthusiasm. In the nicest possible way, I really hope he’s not in Heaven (or the other place), because that would annoy him quite considerably.
An excellent writer and a clear and original thinker – we cannot afford to lose too many of those!
To me Dennett’s passing aptly symbolises the end of the era in which the topic of consciousness was hotly and enthusiastically debated, with many sure it would soon be cracked, and ambitious thinkers thinking they might win fame by publishing the Answer. It seems to me that things have quietened down now, and we don’t expect a big breakthrough so soon. But it was fun while it lasted…
Daniel Dennett (1942-2024)
Daniel Dennett, professor emeritus of philosophy at Tufts University, well-known for his work in philosophy of mind and a wide range of other philosophical areas, has died.
Professor Dennett wrote extensively about issues related to philosophy of mind and cognitive science, especially consciousness. He is also recognized as having made significant contributions to the concept of intentionality and debates on free will. Some of Professor Dennett’s books include Content and Consciousness (1969), Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (1981), The Intentional Stance (1987), Consciousness Explained (1992), Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1995), Breaking the Spell (2006), and From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds (2017). He published a memoir last year entitled I’ve Been Thinking. There are also several books about him and his ideas. You can learn more about his work here.
Professor Dennett held a position at Tufts University for nearly all his career. Prior to this, he held a position at the University of California, Irvine from 1965 to 1971. He also held visiting positions at Oxford, Harvard, Pittsburgh, and other institutions during his time at Tufts University. Professor Dennett was awarded his PhD from the University of Oxford in 1965 and his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard University in 1963.
Professor Dennett is the recipient of several awards and prizes including the Jean Nicod Prize, the Mind and Brain Prize, and the Erasmus Prize. He also held a Fulbright Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and a Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences. An outspoken atheist, Professor Dennett was dubbed one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism”. He was also a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, an honored Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism, and was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Organization.
He died this morning from complications of interstitial lung disease.*
The following interview with Professor Dennett was recorded last year:
(via Eric Schliesser)
Related: “Philosophers: Stop Being Self-Indulgent and Start Being Like Daniel Dennett, says Daniel Dennett“. (Other DN posts on Dennett can be found here.)
*This was added after the initial publication of the post. Source: New York Times.
Obituaries and remembrances elsewhere:
- The Telegraph
- New York Times
- The Splintered Mind (Eric Schwitzgebel)
- The Philosophers’ Cocoon (Marcus Arvan)
- Ars Technica (Jennifer Ouellette)
- Digressions and Impressions (Eric Schliesser)
- The Guardian
- Psychology Today (Walter Veit)
- Washington Post
- Scientific American (John Horgan)
The post Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
Robert M. Adams (1937-2024)
Robert M. Adams, Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has died.
Professor Adams was very well-known for his work in philosophy of religion, ethics, metaphysics, and the history of modern philosophy.
He is the author of What is, and What is in Itself: A Systematic Ontology (2022), A Theory of Virtue: Excellence in Being for the Good (2006), Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics (1999), Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (1994), and The Virtue of Faith and Other Essays in Philosophical Theology (1987), among many works, including over 100 articles. You can learn more about his writings here.
Professor Adams joined the Department of Philosophy at UNC Chapel Hill in 2009. He had retired from Yale in 2004 after eleven years there, and in the intervening years held positions at Oxford University. Prior to joining Yale, he spent over two decades at UCLA. Before that, he was a lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Michigan. He earned his MA and PhD in philosophy at Cornell, a BD from Princeton Theological Seminary, a BA and MA from Oxford University, and an AB from Princeton University.
Over his career he was the recipient of many honors, including being elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy.
His wife, philosopher Marilyn McCord Adams, died in 2017.
The post Robert M. Adams (1937-2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
A timeline of Wilson’s victorious case over ‘antisemitism campaigner’ smearers
How the case developed that ended with uni lecturer James Wilson’s hard-fought win in court after smears put him and his family in danger – and saw LAAS director Newbon commit suicide
Last week, university lecturer James Wilson won £30,000 in damages from two defendants, James Mendelsohn and Edward Cantor, who had contributed to a smear against Wilson by a third ‘antisemitism campaigner’, Peter Newbon, that put the lives of Wilson and his family at risk. Newbon, a director of the right-wing pressure group ‘Labour against Antisemitism’ (LAAS), was a defendant in the case but died by suicide, after a row with his wife, before the case was concluded. The judgement in the Wilson case revealed that Newbon had ‘concealed’ the case from his wife
The case never involved much-loved Jewish author Michael Rosen. However, Newbon’s fellow ‘campaigners’ have tried hard to associate Newbon’s death with Rosen because Rosen dared to complain about the antisemitic doctoring of his famous children’s book, Bear Hunt, in a social media post by Newbon used to attack former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The coroner presiding at the inquest into Newbon’s death made no such connection, nor even mentioned Rosen throughout the proceedings, but this has not stopped the trolls’ efforts.
For readers unfamiliar with the Wilson vs Mendelsohn et al case, below is a timeline showing the chronology of the smears and the subsequent legal victory:
- Nineteen months before August 2020: a confrontation takes place at Wilson’s children’s school with ‘Mrs A’. The trial judge has ruled that Wilson was blameless, but A posts a picture and libellous claim to Facebook
- August 2020: Wilson disputes with Newbon on Twitter about the so-called ‘IHRA definition’ of antisemitism – a definition that has been heavily criticised, not least because it doesn’t define, is used to suppress criticism of Israel and enables false accusations of antisemitism – by Jewish legal experts in the UK and even by its original author, Kenneth Stern
- August 2020: in a manoeuvre typical of so-called ‘antisemitism campaigners’, Newbon resorts quickly to ad hominem personal attacks and responds with libellous claim that Wilson is a ‘freak who takes photos of kids’
- August 2020 onwards: Wilson tries to negotiate with Newbon to remove the libel and warns that he will sue if it is not taken down
- Around August 2020: Newbon’s university employers warn Newbon that he is in breach of the university’s social media code
- November 2020 Newbon gets into dispute with another person on social media – and receives a second warning from university
- Around the same time, Newbon also becomes involved with the so-called ‘University Antisemitism Map’ which targets academics who criticise Israel or dispute the right-wing claim of ‘Labour antisemitism’, labelling them antisemitic and identifying their place of work so collaborators can target their employment. Newbon contacts one institution with an allegation about an employee – the employee is exonerated by institution
- May 2021: Newbon posts a doctored screenshot of a famous ‘tweet’ that originally showed Jeremy Corbyn reading ‘Bear Hunt’ to a group of children. The book held by Corbyn has been photoshopped to make it appear that Corbyn is reading from a notorious antisemitic text, ‘The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’. The image is accompanied by a parody of the words from the Bear Hunt book
- May 2021: numerous Twitter users object and write to Newbon’s university, whose name is displayed on his Twitter profile. Rosen is informed of the tweet and comments publicly that the doctoring was an antisemitic thing to do. The university says it will take action
- May 2021: As revealed during the subsequent Wilson case, Newbon prepares an apology to be issued to Rosen, then withdraws the apology and starts legal proceedings, presumably having been advised by lawyers that he has a case against Rosen
- December 2021: Newbon escalates by issuing a ‘Particulars of Claim’, the formal opening of a libel case, in which he accepts that Rosen is ‘in’ the tweet but claims Rosen is not the target, as the target is Corbyn who is reading Rosen’s book to children in the image. Rosen prepares defence
- January 2022: Newbon ends his own life after a row with his wife
- January 2022 onwards: Rosen is blamed for Newbon’s death by various parties either by implication or actual accusations. In articles at the time, another case (ie Wilson’s) is mentioned, but not by name. Some people note that Newbon was running two cases at the same time, defending against Wilson, claiming against Rosen
- March 2022: Wilson and Newbon’s wife settle Newbon’s involvement in Wilson’s case against Newbon, Mendelsohn and Cantor
- February 2023: a High Court judge rejects an attempt by Mendelsohn and Cantor to have the case against them thrown out. The pair had attempted to claim that Wilson could and should have minimised the damage they did to him by backing out earlier from the online conversation in which he was smeared. The judge described the attempt as ‘not very attractive’
- April 2023: The inquest into Newbon’s death takes place. The coroner makes no mention of either the Wilson or Rosen legal cases. The coroner does mentioned that Newbon had a ‘disagreement’ with his wife and that he left the house in a ‘fragile state’.
- December 2023: the Wilson v Mendelsohn, Newbon (deceased) and Cantor case leads to a four-day trial.
- April 2024: the judge’s findings are published. The judge finds against Cantor and Mendelsohn, dismissing the claims of a string of their witnesses and awarding a total of £30,000 in damages to James Wilson. In the judgment narrative, the late Newbon is described as a bully
The case, which involved the disclosure by Newbon’s widow of his personal communications, also revealed interesting aspects of his conduct toward Michael Rosen and the behaviour of the trolls who have tried to exploit his death to attack Rosen. Analysis to follow.
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Joseph H. Shieber (1970-2024)
Joseph H. Shieber, professor of philosophy at Lafayette College, has died.
Professor Shieber worked in epistemology, especially the epistemology of testimony and social epistemology, as well as in philosophy of language and the history of philosophy. He is the author of Testimony: A Philosophical Introduction, among other works. You can learn more about his writings here and here.
Professor Shieber joined the Department of Philosophy at Lafayette College in 2003. Prior to that, he taught at Connecticut College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Brown University, where he earned his AM and PhD in philosophy. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin before heading to Brown. He earned his BA from Yale University in literature.
“He was a brilliant and astonishingly productive philosopher,” said Owen McLeod, the head of the philosophy department, according to The Lafayette.
He died on April 7th following a brief illness. He was 54.
(via Megan Feeney)
Note: the original version of this post contained a mistake about Shieber’s age. It has been corrected.
The post Joseph H. Shieber (1970-2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
Jonathan Bennett (1930–2024)
Jonathan Bennett, professor emeritus of philosophy at Syracuse University, well-known for his work on early modern philosophy, has died.
Professor Bennett wrote widely on philosophical issues, including philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, logic, and ethics. He is especially well-known for his work interpreting and translating early modern philosophical texts. He has written five books on the subject, including Kant’s Analytic (1966), Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Central Themes (1971), Kant’s Dialectic (1974), A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics (1984), and Learning from Six Philosophers (2001). His website, Early Modern Texts, strives to make canonical texts from the early modern period accessible to students. You can read more about his writings here.
Professor Bennett was on the faculty at Syracuse University from 1970 until he retired in 1997. Prior to this, he held positions at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Cambridge University, and Haverford College. He received his LittD from the University of Cambridge in 1991, his MA from the University of Canterbury in 1953, and his BPhil from the University of Oxford in 1955. Professor Bennett was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991.
He died on March 31st through Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, according to an announcement at Early Modern Texts.
Correction: the original post misstated the year Bennett joined the faculty at Syracuse.
The post Jonathan Bennett (1930–2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.
John F. Malcolm (1931-2023)
John F. Malcolm, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of California, Davis, died last September.
David Copp sent in the following obituary, written by several people affiliated with the Department of Philosophy at UC Davis, including Professor Malcolm himself.
John F. Malcolm (1931-2023)
Professor John F. Malcolm passed away peacefully on September 10, 2023, in his home in Davis, California, at the age of 92.
Originally from Canada, he spent most of his academic career in the Philosophy Department at the University of California, Davis. There, until he retired in 1994, he was central to its program in Ancient Philosophy. He is remembered for his brilliance, his love of classical scholarship, his old-school, exacting professorial standards, his generosity, and his highly unconventional sense of humor. He was an avid traveler and skier, with a special fondness for beautiful classic automobiles. He also played classical music on his keyboard. In addition to being a historian of philosophy, he also extensively investigated his family history in Scotland, Ireland and Canada, tracing it as far back as 1602.
Professor Malcolm’s major academic work was his 1992 book, Plato on the Self-Predication of Forms: Early and Middle Dialogues (Oxford University Press), but his scholarship went beyond philosophy. Fluent in ancient Greek and Latin, he also studied Russian and Sanskrit. Shortly before his death, he was studying a text on the Hebrew language. His students and colleagues would agree that he was one of a kind. His uniqueness extended to his writing his own obituary, which follows:
J. Malcolm was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1931. He lived in Storthoaks, a small hamlet in the south-eastern part of that province where his father was a United Church minister on a mission field. In 1936 he (an only child) and his parents moved to eastern Canada, eventually settling in Bailieboro, Ontario, a small community near Rice Lake. After graduating from high school in Peterboro, he went to the alma mater of his parents, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He received his B.A. in 1952 and then spent two years studying abroad in St Andrews, Scotland, and Marburg, Germany. He returned to Queen’s for an M.A. (on Kant’s ethics) and after a year in Rome went to Princeton for his Ph.D. in Greek philosophy under Gregory Vlastos. His first teaching position was at Huron College, London, Ontario. After three years there he went for a year to Oxford to study with G.E.L Owen. Then he taught for two years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and from there came to the University of California at Davis, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. His main areas of interest were the metaphysical doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. He was a regular participant in a reading group on Ancient Greek Philosophy at Stanford/Berkeley and at Davis.
He had no children and for most of his life was unmarried. While at high school he would spend several months a year on a farm, and, as an undergraduate, during the four month summer vacation, he was employed at such jobs as replacing railroad rails and rotating aluminum remelt furnaces. In light of these experiences, he successfully avoided any extended physical labor thereafter. His vision of the best life attainable by human beings was one of privilege without responsibility—an ideal more to be recognized than realized.
The post John F. Malcolm (1931-2023) first appeared on Daily Nous.
William W. Tait (1929–2024)
William (“Bill”) Walker Tait, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Chicago, has died.
Professor Tait was well-known for his work in philosophy of mathematics and logic, particularly proof theory. He is the author of The Provenance of Pure Reason: Essays in the Philosophy of Mathematics and its History, among many other works.
In a remembrance, Richard Zach (Calgary) discusses Professor Tait’s research:
He proved the consistency of second order logic, settling the Takeuti conjecture positively… His two most well-known contributions are perhaps the development of the Schütte-Tait method of proving cut elimination and the method of proving normalization for lambda calculus using Tait computability predicates… His most influential contribution in the philosophy of mathematics is what’s come to be known as “Tait’s thesis”: the identification of Hilbert’s “finitary standpoint” with what’s primitive recursively computable and provable in primitive recursive arithmetic.
You can learn more about his work here and here.
Professor Tait joined the philosophy faculty at Chicago in 1972. Prior to that, he held positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Stanford University. He earned his PhD from Yale University and his BA from Lehigh University.
You can read his own discussion of his life and work here.
Professor Tait died on March 15th, 2024.
The post William W. Tait (1929–2024) first appeared on Daily Nous.