Derek Parfit: His Life and Thought

Abstract At the time of his death in January 2017, Derek Parfit was widely regarded among philosophers as the best and most important moral philosopher in well over a century. He was also both legendarily eccentric and legendarily generous. In his later years he became increasingly reclusive in his obsessive struggle to develop his ideas and arguments about an extensive set of philosophical problems before he died. In this he failed, as his perfectionism, meticulous concern for the truth, and openness to being proved wrong prevented him from being satisfied until he had a convincing response to every possible objection to the views he sought to defend. This volume presents ten chapters exploring Parfit’s life and thought, including a personal memoir by his widow (also a philosopher), his sister, and a substantial proportion of his closest friends, all of whom were both his colleagues in philosophy and some of whom were also his former students.