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Obituary

Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

Daniel Hutto says goodbye to a memorable philosophical sparring partner.

Jerry Fodor was forever forecasting and combating a doom-and-gloom return to what he regarded as the dark days of behaviourism in the philosophy of mind. Yet he never mentioned the darkness that would befall philosophy at his own demise, from the loss of his systematic exploration and defence of controversial lines of argument, his inexhaustible intellectual energy, and his playful wit. Sadly, that day has come.

A prominent theme in his many obituaries has been to acknowledge Fodor’s virtue as an unflagging philosophical opponent. He was the perfect, utterly resilient, sparring partner.

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