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    The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…

In Memoriam: Henry E. Allison (1937-2023)

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SATURDAY, JUNE 10

Professor Allison, one of the most important and influential Kant scholars of the last fifty years, taught for many years at the University of California, San Diego, before joining Boston University, and then later the University of California, Davis.  He was only this year elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, which was long overdue.  Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Allison, or for those who wish to comment on the significance of his work.

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5 responses to “In Memoriam: Henry E. Allison (1937-2023)”

  1. Michael V Wedin

    I had met Henry at a talk I gave at UCSD and later when he returned the favor in a talk at UCD. But I had no notion that he would join our department as a faculty member. This he did many years later and it gave Henry and I the chance to pursue our budding friendship, which soon developed into the real thing. He was great in conversation — comfortable with any topic and devoid of special pleading of any sort. He lived in Sacramento, as did I, and that made gave us more occasions to get together. A fine friend and first rate philosopher.

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  2. James D. Reid

    I met Professor Allison, first, in his monumental book on Kant's transcendental idealism, which has informed everything I've thought about Kant since, then at a conference on post-Kantian idealism at Dartmouth, and, for the last time (in person), at a meeting of the Pacific APA in San Francisco, where I gave a talk on morality and sensibility in Kant's ethics. He was one of the most generous thinkers I've encountered, with a view toward the historical sources and contexts of nearly everything he touched, a patient, detailed fidelity to the texts themselves and an interest in their contemporary relevance, a sovereign command of most the best literature on the issues he found himself moved to discuss, and a receptivity to the insights of younger scholars whose work is often ignored until they begin to make a name for themselves. Cribbing from Heidegger's tribute to Max Scheler: "Once again a path of philosophy falls back into darkness."

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  3. Huaping Lu-Adler

    I was Henry's last PhD student (he came out of retirement to supervise my dissertation on Kant's philosophy of logic). I have a lot to say about him and what he meant to me personally. But at this point I'll just pass the following note from a Kant scholar in China, Prof. Xing Nan (南星), who wrote on behalf of the Chinese Kant Society:

    "I have just heard of the death of Prof. Henry Allison, and want to convey the deepest lament and sorrow for that, both personally and on behalf of the Chinese Kant society, of which I serve as the secretary. Prof. Allison’s works are widely read by Chinese scholars and particularly influential among the younger generation. As far as I know, two books of his have been translated into Chinese: Kant’s Theory of Freedom and Kant’s Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation and Defense. For many of us, these and other books by Prof. Allison have served and remain to serve as the best introductions to contemporary Kant-scholarship in the Anglophone world (the main works of Paul Guyer, Allen Wood, and other Kant-scholars of his generation are either not yet translated or translated later than Allison’s).

    In the past years, we have invited some of the most prominent Kant-scholars for lectures or meetings at Peking university, some of whom appeared online due to the pandemic. We have wished to invite Prof. Allison but hesitated because of his health. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible. But his works will continue to be read and discussed by many people in a big country which he perhaps has never visited."

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  4. Lawrence Pasternack

    I lost touch with Henry in recent years. I think the last time we spoke was at an APA in 2015.

    In the weeks before his death, I wrote but did not send an email to renew our connection (I studied under him during my final three years at Boston University).

    I am not sure if he would have been in a position to have read it. But, maybe this is a reminder to everyone that we should not put relationships on the backburner.

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  5. Christian Helmut Wenzel

    I first met Henry in the year 1999 when I visited Harvard and BU for one year. I attended his Kant seminar. A few years later, I visited him in California and stayed at his house. He kindly wrote the preface to my 2005 Kant book with Blackwell. During all these years, I stayed in regular email contact with him, discussing various issues in Kant and exchanging personal views. On May 12 this year, I still received an email from him. I live in Taiwan, and the email correspondences with him were most dear and valuable to me. As a great Kant scholar and a good friend, I will always miss and remember him.

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