Sun 13 Sep 2009
William P. Alston, 1921-2009
Posted by Keith DeRose under major figures
[7] Comments
Sad news from the Society of Christian Philosophers mail list: “Bill Alston, 87, died earlier today, September 13, 2009, at his home in Jamesville, NY. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just the week before last.”
Daniel Howard-Snyder has on-line both a biography of Prof. Alston and a bibliography of his writings.
Update: For those who haven’t seen them, there are some nice posts about Alston, by Tent Dougherty (9/13), Jeremy Pierce (9/14), and Tom Senor (9/17), and information about the memorial service that will be held for him on Nov. 2 in Syracuse from Linda Zagzebski (9/18) over at Prosblogion.
7 Responses to “ William P. Alston, 1921-2009 ”
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[...] Keith DeRose at Certain Doubts has links (via Daniel Howard-Snyder) to a fuller biography of Alston and a comprehensive bibliography of his writings. You can also peruse Michael Sudduth’s page of online articles by Alston. [...]
Alston’s collected papers in epistemology, sadly out of print at Cornell University press, are certainly mandatory reading for epistemologists.
Just fyi: Alston’s EJ book is in print again. I remember in grad school his EJ book was *always* checked out. We stopped looking for it at the library and just asked around to see which philosopher had it. Can anyone speak to his work in philosophy of language?
Bill Alston was a tremendous mind, a superb advisor and a inspiring mentor. His influence in epistemology needs no comment; and his work on truth continues to have significant impact. His defense of realism was akin to his defense of foundationalism: pare it down to the bare bones, (he called his version “minimal”) and then show how some traditional objections fail to make contact with the minimal version. Bill knew the value of a distinction; he understood that it is in the cracks, the spaces in between, that the truth is found.
Valerie Alston told me yesterday that the memorial service for Bill will be on Nov. 2 at 11 am in Syracuse. I will forward details when I get them.
Valerie is very appreciative of the support she has received from so many of Bill’s friends in the philosophical community. Her eyesight is too poor to read the blog entries, but one of her grandchildren is going to read them to her.
Bill Alston had a long and distinguished career in epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of religion. I believe that he was one of the most important and influential epistemologists of the past 30 or 40 years, particularly in his efforts to untangle and understand the arguments between internalists and externalists. I learned as much from his writings as from any contemporary epistemologist I can think of and I am grateful that I had various opportunities to discuss philosophy with him. His writings were always a staple in my epistemology classes and even in Philosophy 101. His critical acumen and clarity of expression were matched only by his gentle manner and kindness. With his passing, we have lost one of our finest.
Alson’s writing was a huge part of my education, it’s sad to see him go.