Leiter brings us the sad news of the untimely death of Jonathan E. Adler, professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Since Leiter did not open the post for comments, I thought it would be nice to have a place where we can share our memories and impressions of Jonathan.
I remember him with much fondness from the time I spent at the CUNY GC as a post-doc in 2005/2006. We mostly interacted at the legendary Wednesday Faculty Colloquium at the CG; he made an impression on me not only for the philosophical sharpness of his questions and remarks, but also for his extreme friendliness. For a while he was in charge of the colloquium, and so took the speakers out for dinner; I would often join the group, and chatting with Jonathan was always a pleasure.
I haven’t been in touch or seen him since, but in 2008 he published a very important volume co-edited with Lance Rips: Reasoning – Studies of Human Inference and its Foundations. The volume is the first real attempt at bringing together psychologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers to talk about reasoning and thinking – something that should have happened ages ago. It is a great volume, one which I often consult (I hardly ever buy books, but this one I did not hesitate for a minute before getting it).
This is a real loss for the philosophical community; Jonathan will be dearly missed.
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