Robert Merrihew Adams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1937-09-08)September 8, 1937 |
| Died | April 16, 2024(2024-04-16) (aged 86) Montgomery, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
| Doctoral students | Derk Pereboom |
| Main interests | |
| Notable ideas | Divine command theory |
Robert Merrihew AdamsFBA (September 8, 1937 – April 16, 2024) was an Americananalytic philosopher. He specialized inmetaphysics,philosophy of religion,ethics, and thehistory ofearly modern philosophy.
Adams was born on September 8, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He taught for many years at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, before moving toYale University in the early 1990s as the Clark Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics. As chairman, he helped revive the philosophy department[1] after its near-collapse due to personal and scholarly conflicts betweenanalytical andContinental philosophers.[2] Adams retired from Yale in 2004 and taught part-time at theUniversity of Oxford inEngland, where he was a senior research fellow ofMansfield College. In 2009 he became a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Adams's late wife,Marilyn McCord Adams, was also aphilosopher, working onmedieval philosophy and thephilosophy of religion and was theRegius Professor of Divinity atChrist Church, Oxford. In 2013 both became visiting research professors atRutgers University, in conjunction with the founding of the Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion.[3]
Adams was a past president of theSociety of Christian Philosophers. In 1999, he delivered theGifford Lectures on "God and Being". He was elected a Fellow of theBritish Academy in 2006[4] and was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991.[5]
Adams died inMontgomery, New Jersey, on April 16, 2024, at the age of 86.[6][7]
As a historical scholar, Adams had published on the work of the philosophersSøren Kierkegaard andG.W. Leibniz. His work in the philosophy of religion includes influential essays on theproblem of evil and the relation betweentheism andethics. Inmetaphysics, Adams defendedactualism inmetaphysics of modality andPlatonism about the nature of so-calledpossible worlds.
