John E. Smith (1921–2009)

A Eulogy—Memorial

It is said, offhandedly, that everyone is replaceable. Not so! Certainly the loss of the personal and philosophical presence of John E. Smith is not remediable. And this contention is of special moment to the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. Chronologically subsequent to the work of Max Fisch, among others, John E. Smith put us on notice in 1957 with the publication (in The Review of Metaphysics 11.2) of his manifesto, “The Course of American Philosophy.” He opened this essay by writing that “American philosophers are used to being told by their colleagues in other countries that there really is no philosophy in America” and that “many American thinkers have accepted this view and have tried, in one way or another, to make up the deficiency by entering the import trade.” Then, in a clarion call to both his generation and mine, the latter just beginning its work, he writes: “The time has come, however, for stock-taking and for an evaluation of our status” (279). And that we did, in a way remarkable beyond even his or our dreams. In the early sixties I made a trip to Yale University to consult with John Smith as to what we should do so as to instantiate his pronouncement. The result was the publication of texts, bibliographies, critical editions, biographies, and a veritable flood of commentaries. This work continues, and it is an undying testament to the bold admonition of John E. Smith in 1957.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 27 May 1921, Smith received his BA and PhD in philosophy from Columbia University, and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary. He began his teaching at Vassar College in 1945 and then taught at Barnard College from 1946 to 1952 when he was appointed to the Yale University faculty. He was named the Clark Professor of Philosophy in 1972 and was chair of the philosophy department for five years. He retired from Yale, but not from philosophy, in 1991.

John E. Smith served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, and of the Metaphysical Society of America, the Hegel Society, and the C. S. Peirce Society. He lectured widely in America and abroad. The author of many essays, he was the recipient of two volumes featuring an honorific commentary on his work. As editor of Volume 2 of the Yale University Press’s The Works of Jonathan Edwards series, he will be remembered for his deep “Introduction” to Edwards’s Religious Affections. Memoried also will be his trenchant “Introduction” to the University of Chicago Press’s 1968 edition of Josiah Royce’s The Problem of Christianity. Smith was equivalently at home in speaking and writing about Peirce, James, Royce, Dewey, and Hegel. His essays and interpretations of the literature pertaining to the “religious question” are always informed, astute, and notably rich in religious sensibility.

Speaking now of my mentor, national colleague, and friend of some fifty years, I offer that he had a pedagogical presence rare beyond compare. In the thousands of interlocutory situations that I have witnessed, never have I seen his match. Upon standing to address the audience, Smith transformed the discussion intellectually and emotively in a way that left most of us gasping for air. He had a capacity to address the issue with a reservoir of knowledge, a deftly placed series of asides, and a brilliant sense of intellectual irony that caused us to rethink, rephrase, and even start over. I witnessed this rhetorical quality at very close quarters during hundreds of hours devoted to the pluralist revolt against the mainstream lock on matters philosophical in America. That John E. Smith was elected from the floor as president-elect of the American Philosophical Association should never be underestimated as a major event in the re-mapping of accessibility for our work in Classical American Philosophy. By that event, by that election, John Smith fulfilled his earlier request that “we take stock” and come unto our own. In his memory, I urge us to never again allow our tradition to be shoved to the margins...