News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.
Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy (Harvard University Press & Center for the Study of World Religions, 2026) Permanently…
[…] Brian Leiter (Chicago), The American Bar Association Needs to Investigate Texas Tech Law School for Violating the First Amen…:…
[…] Spacetime does not exist – Leiter Reports, accessed May 23, 2026. Source […]
Saul Smilansky PARADOXICAL ETHICS (Oxford University Press, 2026). Available by Open Access. https://academic.oup.com/book/62721?login=false Paradoxical Ethics is a unique book, exploring…
Some background: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/12/thousands-of-university-of-nottingham-staff-told-they-are-at-risk-of-redundancy Not only does Nottingham University have a good academic reputation, the city of Nottingham has a great…
Jacob Barrett, Ideal and Non- Ideal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2026) Part of the Elements in Political Philosophy series. Permanently…
The irony here is that both Ben and Paul are fighting the wrong battle — like dinosaurs before the meteor…
Professor Reynolds, a longtime member of the philosophy faculty at Arizona State University (where he was emeritus), was well-known for his work on a variety of topics in epistemology. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Reynolds or for those who would like to comment on the significance of his work.
The following is the text of my Facebook post on Sunday, March 22. That FB post is set to Public, and many of the ensuing comments there may be of interest.
“RIP Steven Louis Reynolds, 1956-2026. He died yesterday, March 21, in Salt Lake City, Utah, of complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was my colleague and also my close philosophical conversation partner since UCLA graduate school in the early 1980s. He had a sharp mind, excellent philosophical values and instincts, and a dry wit. He supported me through occasional difficult times. He published on the nature of knowledge and justification, the epistemology of perception, skepticism, varieties of philosophical realism, and the meaning of the word ‘real’. His fine 2017 book, Knowledge as Acceptable Testimony, argues that the concept of knowledge functions to express a naturally developing kind of social control, a complex social norm, and that the main purpose of our practice of saying and thinking that people ‘know’ is to improve our system for exchanging information, which is testimony. My heartfelt condolences to his wife Sharman and to their sons Andrew, Ben, and Danny. Steven will be missed and long remembered. Ave atque vale, old friend.”
Brian Leiter, thank you for this blog post.
I am saddened to hear of Professor Reynolds’ passing. He was kind enough to sit on my masters thesis committee back in 2013 when I was a 63 year old student studying philosophy after a prior career in engineering and business management. I very much enjoyed his classes. Aside from his deep understanding of epistemology, he was generous with his time and charitable with his comments regarding my writing. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to study under him.
Leave a Reply