R.I.P. Nick
My teacher, the philosopher Nicholas Sturgeon, has died. Ours was a rather lopsided relationship: he was generous, encouraging, and constructively critical; I benefited. (I assisted him one semester, so I suppose he also benefited – although, since he seemed to review everything I graded, I may not have saved him all that much work.) I’ve already written how, last year, made frail by illness, he went out of his way to serve as one of my dissertation examiners. Now I’d like to say a little more about his work, character, and influence.
Nick was best known as a defender of “Cornell Realism,” a cluster of views about the function of moral discourse (it purports to describe objective facts) and the nature of morality (it’s a mind-independent part of the natural world, and, for all we know, it isn’t reducible to anything we can describe in purely non-moral terms). Although, as a supernaturalist, I didn’t quite adopt Nick’s position – I continue to think about how much of Nick’s picture of morality a Christian could agree with – his influence led me to break decisively with moral subjectivism and all deep forms of moral relativism.
Nick was the best classroom teacher I ever had. His colleagues and graduate students were in awe of his lecturing, which he famously did without notes. The lectures were thorough, rigorous, clear – and often pleasurably dramatic, even suspenseful. I remember perching on the edge of my seat as he explained to beginning ethics students the intricacies of Joseph Butler’s refutation of psychological egoism. Though the topic is a staple of ethics surveys, I haven’t seen anyone else explain Butler’s argument better (Butler himself comes close).
It was typical of Nick to pay close attention to a historical figure. I regret that I never found time to read through the British Moralists under his guidance (which he agreed to provide). I also envied the undergraduates and graduate assistants assigned to him when his turn came to teach Introduction to Philosophy: I would’ve loved to hear him lecture on Russell’s Problems of Philosophy and Berkeley’s Three Dialogues, two of his chosen texts. I did profit from his lectures on Butler, Thomas Hobbes, J.S. Mill, G.E. Moore, Philippa Foot, J.L. Mackie, and Bernard Williams. He knew all these distinguished moralists inside and out.
Many who passed through Cornell will recall his goodwill. With me he was rather withdrawn, though always kind (and I was quite shy in his presence). He was very helpful when I had to clear hurdles for my M.A. and Ph.D.
David has a good story about meeting Nick at a conference. He told him, “My brother John-Paul really likes you!” and Nick said, “Ho, ho! Well, I really like John-Paul!”
Here’s one memorial notice. It has another philosopher’s recollections of Nick.
And here’s a notice with more recollections in the comments, and a photo.
Nick was best known as a defender of “Cornell Realism,” a cluster of views about the function of moral discourse (it purports to describe objective facts) and the nature of morality (it’s a mind-independent part of the natural world, and, for all we know, it isn’t reducible to anything we can describe in purely non-moral terms). Although, as a supernaturalist, I didn’t quite adopt Nick’s position – I continue to think about how much of Nick’s picture of morality a Christian could agree with – his influence led me to break decisively with moral subjectivism and all deep forms of moral relativism.
Nick was the best classroom teacher I ever had. His colleagues and graduate students were in awe of his lecturing, which he famously did without notes. The lectures were thorough, rigorous, clear – and often pleasurably dramatic, even suspenseful. I remember perching on the edge of my seat as he explained to beginning ethics students the intricacies of Joseph Butler’s refutation of psychological egoism. Though the topic is a staple of ethics surveys, I haven’t seen anyone else explain Butler’s argument better (Butler himself comes close).
It was typical of Nick to pay close attention to a historical figure. I regret that I never found time to read through the British Moralists under his guidance (which he agreed to provide). I also envied the undergraduates and graduate assistants assigned to him when his turn came to teach Introduction to Philosophy: I would’ve loved to hear him lecture on Russell’s Problems of Philosophy and Berkeley’s Three Dialogues, two of his chosen texts. I did profit from his lectures on Butler, Thomas Hobbes, J.S. Mill, G.E. Moore, Philippa Foot, J.L. Mackie, and Bernard Williams. He knew all these distinguished moralists inside and out.
Many who passed through Cornell will recall his goodwill. With me he was rather withdrawn, though always kind (and I was quite shy in his presence). He was very helpful when I had to clear hurdles for my M.A. and Ph.D.
David has a good story about meeting Nick at a conference. He told him, “My brother John-Paul really likes you!” and Nick said, “Ho, ho! Well, I really like John-Paul!”
Here’s one memorial notice. It has another philosopher’s recollections of Nick.
And here’s a notice with more recollections in the comments, and a photo.