I regret to inform my readers that philosopher James F. Ross has died. Here is the announcement from the University of Pennsylvania website, and here is an obituary posted by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ross was one of the most important thinkers within the group of contemporary analytic philosophers who advocate a revival of Aristotelian, Thomistic, and Scholastic ideas and arguments. He was the author of several books: most recently, of Thought and World: The Hidden Necessities, and also of Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Theology, and Portraying Analogy (some of which can be read here via Google books). He also published many important articles, including “Immaterial Aspects of Thought,” “The Fate of the Analysts: Aristotle’s Revenge,” and “The Crash of Modal Metaphysics.” Here is his brief article on “Analogy” from The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. And here is Ross’s webpage, with links to some other work of his available online. RIP.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
James F. Ross (1931 – 2010)
I regret to inform my readers that philosopher James F. Ross has died. Here is the announcement from the University of Pennsylvania website, and here is an obituary posted by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ross was one of the most important thinkers within the group of contemporary analytic philosophers who advocate a revival of Aristotelian, Thomistic, and Scholastic ideas and arguments. He was the author of several books: most recently, of Thought and World: The Hidden Necessities, and also of Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Theology, and Portraying Analogy (some of which can be read here via Google books). He also published many important articles, including “Immaterial Aspects of Thought,” “The Fate of the Analysts: Aristotle’s Revenge,” and “The Crash of Modal Metaphysics.” Here is his brief article on “Analogy” from The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. And here is Ross’s webpage, with links to some other work of his available online. RIP.
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Oh no! As soon as I saw his pic here, I knew. Thank you for posting this news. May he find eternal rest with the saints in the light of Eternal Wisdom!
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Ross's early work in Philosophical Theology, particularly his treatment of the Scotist argument for God's existence, an argument he still defended 40 years later with Todd Bates in The Oxford Companion to Scotus.
ReplyDeletehttp://veniaminov.blogspot.com/2009/09/scotist-argument-for-gods-existence.html
It may also be of some interest to readers here that Dr. Michael Liccione got his PhD under Ross at UPenn.
Best,
Hi Ed
ReplyDeleteI happily stumbled on your blog looking for Ross' article "Immaterial Aspects of Thought." I noticed your list of recommended philosopher's websites. Are you familiar with Barry Miller's "The Fullness of Being" (Notre Dame 2002)? If Miller has a website I think he merits being on that list of yours!
Prayers
Tom Sherman, S.J. (Zimbabwe)
Hello Father! Very good to hear from you. It's been a long time. I am indeed familiar with Miller's work, and think very highly of it. As it happens, I searched high and low for a website I might link to for him, but could not find one.
ReplyDeletePlease send me an email when you have a chance. It would be great to catch up.
Dear Edward Feser and Blog Readers,
ReplyDeleteI saw your appreciation of my father and thought perhaps I might share with you the Eulogy from his funeral mass at The Church of St Sebastian, Providence, RI (17 July 2010).
Eulogy for James Francis Ross, d. 12 July 2010
Our universe is wondrous, splendid, and startling. It is a multi-dimensional enigma that offers the inquisitive and reflective mind fertile ground for contemplation. James Ross dedicated his life to pondering its nature, who made it, why it came to be, and to educating the rest of us to wonder about it, even if despite all his efforts we could not develop the capacity to think about it with the same richness, depth, and intensity he did.
When our mother, his wife, Kathleen, died seven weeks ago, Jim lost his life-long companion; that loss hit him hard. As was true for Kathleen, it was true for Jim, that their children were at the center of his world. Once fishing with one of his young children, another amateur fisher turned to Jim and said 'Can't you tell that boy to stop talking'. Jim said, 'No, I love to listen to my children?' The time he would devote to conversation seemed limitless and his children, students and colleagues, often acknowledge the benefit of this gift. He encouraged discourse and Socratic-style dialogues. His engaging smile and twinkling eyes were a tapestry of these conversations.
An ardent user of public libraries, Jim was a voracious reader. He marveled at the expressive possibility of language and took pleasure in it and in trying to explain how it worked. He encouraged all of us to think broadly when seeking explanations. He did this as a philosopher and as a father, for instance, in a casual conversation a couple of weeks ago, he illuminated Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" for me. He did so by thinking beyond convention.
Jim relished nature's beauty; green fields, long sandy beaches, and vibrant foamy ocean waves. He had a discerningly appreciative eye for the beauty made by people whether a well built stone wall, a building, a poem, a piece of prose or a work of art. The beauty lay in simplicity and aesthetic harmony. His love of music was typical of this: he enjoyed listening to it, playing it, thinking about it, and explaining it. For Jim reflection produced solutions: whether he needed to figure out how to fix the washing machine, grow a better vegetable garden, handle legal inconveniences, or do philosophy.
Jim had the capacity to perceive the potentiality of the unrealized, the unformed, and the unnoticed. He was creative in thought and action. In his summer home, he suspended a minimalist, but recognizable, statute carved from a nine foot long piece of driftwood Jim had hauled up from the beach; the mitered saint had emerged as he carved. The statute is, St. Anselm, a thinker he admired and a saint he felt inspired him.
As a fervent supporter of the ideals of a liberal, democratic, and socially considerate society, Jim was concerned about individual rights and freedom, and profoundly perturbed by what he saw, over the past three decades especially, as the narrowing of the American spirit and mind.
For Jim, learning lay at the essence of being. Every day was a chance to acquire new information and to find meaning in it and interconnections that led him to create new knowledge and wisdom. The legacy of Jim's scholarship is not for the intellectually faint of heart; it reflects an awesome breadth of knowledge, deep thought and inspiration. He had many maxims but six come to mind today: do not force it, ponder the world around you, take pleasure in attempting to understand it, share your knowledge with others generously, maintain your integrity and the courage of your convictions, and always remember that the well-lived life is, in the Aristotelian sense, a life focused on the pursuit of excellence.
Seamus Ross
17 July 2010
(Delivered at The Church of St Sebastian, Providence, RI.)
Thanks so much for that, Mr. Ross. I will post it at the top of the blog tomorrow morning so that it gets the attention it deserves.
ReplyDeleteI am still looking for a forum in which people discuss the work of James F. Ross in some depth, or failing that, some critical works that might help me sharpen my grasp of his ideas. I suppose this is as good a place as any to broadcast my interest, since like me, Ed Feser is a fan of professor Ross & his work. If nothing is currently out there, I'd be happy to collaborate in creating a space where people interested in doing a slow read of Ross's work exchange ideas, questions and insights.
ReplyDeleteI just created a Subreddit "community" for those of us who would like to do a slow read of the works of James F. Ross and discuss what we read. I'm launching it by posting a preliminary glossary of terms Ross uses and excerpts from his writing that illustrate the meanings.
ReplyDeletePlease join me here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesFRossDiscussion/