Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. Derek Muller's avatar
  2. Pablo M.'s avatar
  3. sahpa's avatar
  4. Aphrodite Alexandrakis's avatar
  5. Miroslav Imbrisevic's avatar

    Haack gave a clear-headed assessment of the state of philosophy in 2017 [https://www-degruyterbrill-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/document/doi/10.1515/sats-2019-7001/html]: ‘Yes, something is rotten in the state…

  6. FP's avatar
  7. Francesca Poggi's avatar

In Memoriam: Susan Haack (1945-2026)

Brian Leiter

Professor Haack was a well-known contributor to epistemology and philosophy of logic, who started her academic career at the University of Warwick, and spent the bulk of her career (since 1990) at the University of Miami, where she taught in both the philosophy department and law school. There is a brief memorial notice from Miami here. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Haack or for those who wish to comment on the significance of her work.

(Thanks to Bob Talisse for the pointer.)

Leave a Reply to Aphrodite Alexandrakis Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

3 responses to “In Memoriam: Susan Haack (1945-2026)”

  1. Tom Llewellyn

    Sorry to hear this. Her book on logic remains one of the best of its kind.

    Reply
  2. Miroslav Imbrisevic

    Haack gave a clear-headed assessment of the state of philosophy in 2017
    [https://www-degruyterbrill-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/document/doi/10.1515/sats-2019-7001/html]: ‘Yes, something is rotten in the state of philosophy.’ (…) Some of the problems are the result of changes in the management of universities affecting the whole academy: the burgeoning bureaucracy, the ever-increasing stress on “productivity,” the ever-spreading culture of grants-and-research-projects, the ever-growing reliance on hopelessly flawed surrogate measures of the quality of intellectual work, the obsession with “prestige,” and so on. And some of the problems are the result of changes in academic publishing: the ever-more-extensive reach of enormous, predatory presses that treat authors as fungible content-providers whose rights in their
    work they can gobble up and sell on, the ever-increasing intrusiveness of copy-editors dedicated to ensuring that everyone write the same deadly, deadpan
    academic prose, the endless demands of a time- and energy-wasting peer-review
    process by now not only relentlessly conventional but also, sometimes, outright
    corrupt, and so forth. Other problems, however, are more specific to our discipline: our decades of over-production of Ph.D.s, for example, the pressure we
    put on graduate students to publish while they’re still wet behind the ears, the
    completely artificial importance we give to “contacts” and skill in grantsmanship’.

    Reply
  3. Aphrodite Alexandrakis

    It is very sad to hear that Susan Haack does not exist anymore in this world. However, her name and great work will remain in the history of philosophy.
    I first met Susan when she came to be interviewed for a faculty position by the philosophy department. At that time, early 1980’s, I was a philosophy graduate student at the University of Miami.
    Since no one from the all male faculty department offered Susan to take her around to see the area, I took her in my old car to the beach which, at that time was quiet, clean, and beautiful. She was a quiet young woman but a civilized one.

    As it is known, her work will for ever be in among the great philosophers.

    I regret that my hard work at the university and the caring for my young family at that time, did not allow me to get to know Susan closer.

    May her special spirit, wit and great mind, be always remembered.

    Reply

Designed with WordPress