J. B. Schneewind

Jerome Borges Schneewind (May 17, 1930 – January 8, 2024) was an American scholar of the history of philosophy. Latterly he was a Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

J. B. Schneewind
Schneewind in 1972
Born	Jerome Borges Schneewind (1930-05-17)May 17, 1930 Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Died	January 8, 2024(2024-01-08) (aged 93)
Spouse(s)	Edith Levy (div.),[1] Elizabeth Hughes (d. 2021)[2]
Children	3 daughters
Academic background
Education	Cornell University B.A. major in philosophy (1961)
Alma mater	Princeton University M.A. (1953), Ph.D. (1957)
Thesis	The Nature of McTaggart's Theory of Appearance
Doctoral advisor	John W. Yolton[3]
Other advisors	Max Black
Influences	Kant, Richard Rorty[4]
Academic work
Discipline	Philosopher
Sub-discipline	Philosophy; Victorian literature; Victorian morality[5]
Institutions	University of Pittsburgh (1964–1975), Hunter College (1975–1981), Johns Hopkins University (1981–2002)

Life and career

Jerome Borges Schneewind was born on May 17, 1930, in Mount Vernon, New York.^[6]

Schneewind received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1951^[6] and obtained his M.A. (1953) and Ph.D. (1957) from Princeton University.^[6]

Schneewind was an Instructor in philosophy at the University of Chicago (1957–1960) and at Princeton University (1960–1961),^[7] and he was a faculty member at Yale University (1961–1963), and the University of Pittsburgh (1964–1975).^[8] At the latter he also served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1968–1973).^[6][9] He then taught, and served as provost, at Hunter College CUNY (1975–1981).^[10]

Schneewind was appointed at Johns Hopkins University's philosophy department in 1981^[8] as professor of philosophy, retiring in 2002.^[6] He was named professor emeritus in 2003.^[10]

Schneewind held visiting positions at Leicester, Stanford, and Helsinki.^[11] He also held Mellon, Guggenheim,^[6] and NEH fellowships,^[10][11] and spent 1992–1993 as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences.^[12]

Schneewind served as president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association (1995–1996)^[8] and was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.^[13] He was also Chair of the American Philosophical Association's Board of Officers from 1999 to 2002.^[8]

Schneewind died on January 8, 2024, at the age of 93.^[8][10]

Works

Books authored

• Backgrounds of English Victorian Literature, Random House, 1970^[14]
• Sidgwick's Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1977^[15]
• The Invention of Autonomy: a history of modern moral philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1998.^[16][17]
• Essays on the History of Moral Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2009^[18][19]

Books edited (a selection)

• Giving: Western Ideas of Philanthropy, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1996
  • Introduction, and Chapter 3: "Philosophical Ideas of Charity"^[20]

• Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant, 2 vols., Cambridge University Press, 1990, 1 vol. reprint, 2002.
• Kant's Lectures on Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2001, (in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant series)

*For more complete publication details see; "J. B. Schneewind: Bibliography" (2009).^[21]