George Bealer

Professor of Philosophy

George Bealer, B.A. University of California at Berkeley, Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley, faculty member at Yale since 2005, you are one of the leading metaphysicians of your generation. In a time when traditional philosophical areas, concepts, and methods have increasingly merged with those of the natural and social sciences, and philosophy itself has come under the sway of naturalism and empiricism, you have steadfastly argued for the “autonomy of philosophy” from other, empirically-based disciplines. You are perhaps the world’s leading defender of rationalism. You have argued forcefully that fundamental philosophical issues of modality (necessity and possibility), mind, meaning, and logic are a priori and that they can be settled only by careful thought and philosophical intuition. In metaphysics, you have given a powerful defense of the existence of abstract objects, such as the traditional philosopher’s notions of universals, properties, and propositions.

Philosophic conversation often proceeds through articles, and yours have appeared in the premier journals on both sides of the Atlantic: Mind and The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society in Britain and The Philosophical Review, The Journal of Philosophy, and Noûs, in the United States. When your influential book Quality and Concept appeared, it was said by a reviewer to be “one of the most important works of logic to appear in recent years… The arguments are presented with the utmost lucidity, rigor, and clarity.” The word “beautiful” was invoked about it.

Having taught before at Reed and the University of Colorado, you brought your devotion to philosophy, both the subject and the activity, to Yale and helped instill it in our undergraduates and graduate students. Your seminars are legendary for their capacity to focus on timeless questions in ways that seem to challenge the very boundaries of time. You bring careful thought, logical rigor, and what one of your students calls your ability to “hang technically,” but also gentleness and fair-mindedness, to your classes in ways that students greatly appreciate.

Philosopher’s philosopher, we are grateful for your many contributions to Yale and to the tradition of philosophical thought to which you have been so devoted. May your philosophizing go on and on. 

Tribute Editor: Penelope Laurans