Professor Peter Goldie
Introduction
Peter Goldie, Samuel Hall Professor of Philosophy, died peacefully at home on October 22. He had been ill for a little while, but coped with his illness with his customary steely realism and roguish good humour. He will be sorely missed by his colleagues and friends both at the University of Manchester and in the wider academic world.
Peter's philosophical career was remarkable for the way in which it gathered momentum. Having been the Chief Executive Officer of a FTSE 100-listed public company, Peter decided that the depth of his interest in philosophy could only really be served by devoting himself to the subject full-time. This he did by studying for a BA at University College London from 1990: something he did with such success that he went on to gain a BPhil and DPhil from Oxford University, where he was supervised by Bernard Williams. After leaving Oxford, Peter became a Lecturer in Philosophy at King's College London, before being quickly promoted to Reader. The then Centre for Philosophy at the University of Manchester was delighted when he decided to take up the vacant Samuel Hall Chair in Philosophy in 2005.
Peter's legacy is huge. First of all, there is his substantial body of work, all of which is characterized by an incisive philosophical intelligence, elegant, clear prose, and an ability to marry traditional philosophical methods with a respect for the deliverances of the sciences. His monograph, The Emotions (Oxford, 2000), was a book that both announced him as a major figure in the philosophy of mind, and which helped to revitalize a subject that had unjustly become something of philosophical backwater. His second monograph, On Personality (Routledge, 2004), saw him apply the same critical acumen to the concept of personality and to the question of whether ascribing character traits to people is a reliable guide to how they will behave. His final book, The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion and the Mind (Oxford, forthcoming) will be published soon. The final typescript was delivered to the press in the week before he passed away. These works, together with his numerous articles, his edited collections, and his editorship of The Oxford Handbook of Emotion (Oxford, 2010), constitute an achievement that any philosopher would have been proud of in a 40-year career. Peter's publications were gained in a twelve-year period.
Peter also played a crucial role in the rejuvenation of philosophy at the University of Manchester. As the newly formed Discipline Area's first Head, Peter oversaw a raft of judicious appointments of junior lecturers, the establishment of the Centre for the Emotions and Value, and a remarkable increase in graduate student numbers. Largely as a result of his input, he leaves behind him a Philosophy Discipline Area that looks forward to the future with great optimism.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Peter leaves a legacy in the form of those students – particularly PhD students – who have been encouraged and inspired by his teaching. Many of his students have gone on to gain post-doctoral posts and lectureships. All of those lucky enough to have been supervised by him testify to his supportiveness, warmth and wit. His was a unique philosophical presence. We have lost an original thinker, a fine teacher, and a kind, amusing and delightfully mischievous friend.
Julian Dodd
Selected publications
Authored books
The Emotions: A Philosophical Exploration, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.
On Personality, London: Routledge, 2004.
Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? (with Elisabeth Schellekens), London: Routledge, 2009.
The Mess Inside: Narrative Thinking, Emotion, and the Mind, Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming
Edited books
Understanding Emotions: Mind and Morals, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2002.
Philosophy and Conceptual Art (co-edited with Elisabeth Schellekens), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (co-edited with Amy Coplan), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology (co-edited with Elisabeth Schellekens), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Articles
'How We Understand Others' Emotions', Mind and Language 14: 4, 1999, pp. 394-423.
'Explaining Expressions of Emotion', Mind 109: 433, 2000, pp. 25-38.
'One's Remembered Past: Narrative Thinking, Emotion, and the External Perspective', Philosophical Papers 32, 2003, pp. 301-19.
'Narrative, Emotion and Perspective', in Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts, M. Kieran and D. Lopes, eds, London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 54-68.
'Emotion, Reason, and Virtue', in Emotion, Evolution, and Rationality, D. Evans and P. Cruse, eds, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 249-67.
'Wollheim on Emotion and imagination', Philosophical Studies 127, 2006, pp. 1-17.
'Conceptual art and knowledge', in Philosophy and Conceptual Art,P. Goldie and E. Schellekens, eds, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 157-170.
'Seeing what is the kind thing to do: perception and emotion in morality', dialectica 61, 2007, pp. 347-62.
'Towards a virtue theory of art', British Journal of Aesthetics 47, 2007, pp. 372-87.
'Dramatic irony and the external perspective', in Narrative and Understanding Persons, D. Hutto, ed., Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements Series, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 69-84.
'Virtues of art and human well-being', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supp. Vol. LXXXII, 2008, pp. 179-95.
'Narrative thinking, emotion, and planning', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 67: 1, 2009, pp. 97-106.
'Thick concepts and emotion', in Reading Bernard Williams, ed. D. Callcut, London: Routledge, 2009, pp. 94-109.
'Whimsicality in the Films of Eric Rohmer', with Peter Lamarque for Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Volume XXXIV, 'Film and Emotions', Sept 2010, pp. 306-322.
'Grief: A Narrative Account', Ratio 24: 2, 2011, 119-137.
'Anti-empathy', in Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, eds A. Coplan and P. Goldie, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.