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In Memoriam: John G. Slater (1930-2022)

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM FEBRUARY 17–UPDATED

Professor Slater, a well-known expert on the life and work of Bertrand Russell, died in November from Covid.  He taught philosophy at the University of Toronto for more than 30 years, where he was emeritus since 1995.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Slater or who would like to comment on the significance of his work.

(Thanks to Mohan Matthen for the information.)

UPDATE:  The Toronto memorial notices is here.

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6 responses to “In Memoriam: John G. Slater (1930-2022)”

  1. Stephen Yablo

    John Slater taught an amazing course at U of T entirely about the philosophy of Bertrand Russell! It was so good. A peak experience. A few years later he helped me get a fellowship in India. He'd asked me to look for Russell books in Tamil which I half-remember doing, with Hans Herzberger in Madras in 1979. He wrote a book *Minerva's Aviary* about the history of the Toronto department; it's good! (On the shelf upstairs.) I was in touch with him a few months back. He encouraged me to say hi to Peter Koellner (Harvard) who went through a few years later. Other one-time U of T undergrads who might have known or been influenced by him, besides Peter: Jamie Tappenden, Michael Kremer, Philip Kremer,…

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  2. Stephen Menn

    I only met John Slater once; it's people who really knew him who should be commenting. Perhaps we can get more people to contribute? But anyway someone should say: besides his philosophical and interpretive work on Russell, and besides his editorial work on Russell's Collected Papers, Slater was a passionate book-collector who over the years assembled an astonishing collection of Russell publications, on technical philosophy, issues of war and peace, and everything else, including translations into every possible language (thus Stephen Yablo's being commissioned to look for Tamil translations), pirated editions, and so on. I think they are now all housed in the University of Toronto library. There's a nice description of the collection, as it existed in 1982, at https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/russelljournal/article/view/1579/1605

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  3. Martin Lin

    John Slater was emeritus by the time I arrived at Toronto in 2001 but he was around the department. He was a kind and supportive person. I'm sad to hear this news.

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  4. Michael Antony

    I took an intro to philosophy class in 1981 with John Slater in my first semester as a philosophy undergrad at U. of T. Although I didn't take any other courses with him, that one, and he, were unforgettable. He was one of the best philosophy teachers I ever had.

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  5. John Richardson

    I had the great privilege of enrolling in John Slater's Introduction To Philosophy course ("Logic Knowledge And Reality" at the University of Toronto in the mid 1970s. He taught the first semester (Logic) and Professor Goudge taught the second half.

    It was the best academic experience I ever had. The course influenced me in countless ways and helped me to organize my thinking. I went on and did the Bertrand Russell course with him in second year. But, his logic course was what was so important to me.

    I actually kept up with him (with gaps) over the years. I had some communication with him during the last few years of his life. I would email him Holiday Greetings in December and he would always take the time to respond with a nice note describing his ongoing activities. In December of 2022 I emailed him and didn't receive a response (I now know why).

    I am sure that I am one of thousands of former students who could be writing this "remembrance". The impact that the man and his course had on me continues far beyond his life. Thanks to Professor John G. Slater for making a difference in my life!

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  6. cheryl.misak@utoronto.ca

    John was a wonderful colleague. He loved the department as much as its members loved him. The UofT's memorial notice is here:

    https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/news/in-memoriam-john-g-slater-1930-2022/

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